


Charmed Wizard

by JasonMorganfan87



Category: Charmed (TV), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Abusive Dursley Family, F/M, Gen, Harry Has Issues, Hurt/Comfort, Manipulative Dumbledore, Neglected Harry, Powerful Harry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-06
Updated: 2017-06-06
Packaged: 2018-10-15 06:59:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 27,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10552028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JasonMorganfan87/pseuds/JasonMorganfan87
Summary: The Charmed ones' lives collide with one savior of the Wizarding world after Phoebe as a premonition of the boy using demonic powers.  What happens when they learn of shocking connection the young boy has to them?  How will Harry cope with powers he can't understand, as well as learning he isn't who he thought he was?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Aside from using the names of the Charmed Ones children, this story does not follow the comic books.
> 
> For this story, the Harry Potter timeline is quite a bit skewered. Harry was born in 2002 instead of 1981. Wyatt's birth is also a bit altered. Instead of February 2003, he was born in September 2002.

Phoebe Halliwell was in her bedroom with her husband Coop doing some spring cleaning. Phoebe was going through their dresser while Coop took on the closet. “Can you believe how long it's been since we've cleaned all this out?”

“I don't think we've ever cleaned this closet out, I don't even recognize half the stuff here. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen this,” Coop said as he held out a small brown, wooden box.

Phoebe turned to see what her husband was referring to. “Oh, that's my box of keepsakes. I've had that since I left for New York. That thing really is old.”

“These are all your keepsakes since then? You can't have many then,” Coop said. 

“Well, I'm not a pack rat,” she said with a chuckle. 

“Mind if I look?” Coop asked. 

“Of course not. Go ahead. If you're looking for gold jewelry to help us make it big, good luck though,” Phoebe said before going back to her task. She was sorting out the clothes she wanted to keep from the ones she never wore anymore. 

Coop found a few knickknacks and trinkets. There wasn't much noteworthy, except one thing. An old photo. “You kept this?”

Phoebe immediately turned around, hearing the hurt laced in her husbands voice. When she did, she was faced with the past. Coop was holding an old picture of her and her ex-husband Cole. “Okay, it's not what you think.”

“I'm not sure what else it could be. You kept a picture of your demon ex-husband as a keepsake,” Coop said, looking away. 

“Coop, I haven't looked at that box in years. In fact, the last time was probably before we even met,” Phoebe said. 

“You must have realized somewhere deep down that you kept this. There must be a reason,” Coop said with pain laced in his voice. 

“There isn't! Like I said, I haven't looked at that box in forever. I probably put that picture in not long after Cole died. Then I just forgot about it,” Phoebe tried to assure him. 

“But why? You were already divorced. You were over him, weren't you?” Coop asked.

“Coop, this isn't a big deal. But you know what, I'll get rid of it,” Phoebe said as she walked over and took the photo from him. The second her fingers touched the picture, she gasped and was pulled into a premonition. 

Phoebe saw a boy with Black messy hair chasing a woman who was laughing at him. He pointed what looked like stick at her and muttered something. The woman fell, but whatever the boy did didn't seem to affect her the way he wanted as she just kept laughing. Then the boy began to get extremely angry and an energy ball formed in his free hand. 

Phoebe gasped once more as she pulled out of the premonition. She dropped the picture she was holding to the floor and took a couple of breaths.

“Phoebe are you okay? Did you see something?” Coop asked, momentarily forgetting the tension that had just been between them

Phoebe nodded. “Yeah. We gotta go to the Manor.”

 

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

 

About ten minutes later, Phoebe was sitting at the dining room table with her husband, sisters, and brother-in-laws. 

“So this demon was attacking a woman. Do you think she was a witch? Do you have any idea who or where she is?” Piper asked.

“No, but she's not the innocent. The kid is,” Phoebe said confidently.

“The kid? The demon? What makes you say that?” Piper asked. Normally, she'd agree. The kid would seem like the most likely innocent since he was a child, but Phoebe said he produced an energy ball, which was a demon power. That did not scream innocent.

“Trust me, the woman was no innocent. She looked like she could play the worst villain in the world,” Phoebe said.

“Right, but looks can be deceiving, and this kid has demon powers,” Piper pointed out

“Piper's right. It seems more likely that this boy is our villain here,” Paige agreed. 

“I don't think so. Look, I can't explain it, but my instincts tell me that this kid is the one that needs our help,” Phoebe said. 

“What else could you tell from your premonition?” Leo asked.

“Not much. The boy looked like he was a cross between the ages of Wyatt and Chris. He had dark hair and green eyes, wore glasses. I couldn't tell anything about the environment itself. It was too dark. Oh, but before he used his powers, the kid was using some sort of stick,” Phoebe told them.

“What? Like he was hitting the woman with a stick?” Henry asked. 

“No. Some kind of light burst out and the woman fell,” Phoebe said.

“It could be a wand. Did it look kind of old?” Leo asked.

“Yeah, but it didn't look like a wand. It just looked like a thin piece of wood,” Phoebe said. 

“There's a type of wizard that use wands like that,” Coop chimed in. 

“Yeah. The boy probably goes to school for it?” Leo said.

“Like Magic School?” Piper asked.

“No, not like our magic school. Their magic's different than yours. They enhance it through wands. Most can't really use it otherwise. When they turn eleven, they go to a special school to learn,” Leo told them.

“That sucks. They're held back by a stupid piece of wood?” Paige asked. 

“They are limited. Most of their magic is through spells. They don't have special powers like you do. But on the up side, they don't have to hide as much as you do. They can't tell mortals about it outside their families, but this type of magic is actually a society. They have their own jobs, shops, and schools all around us. We just can't see it because we don't have their type of magic,” Leo explained.

“And they can be demons too?” Piper asked.

“Well, I've never heard of it happening, but that's not to say it's not possible. If one of his parents was a wizard or even just mortal, it's possible. Some children develop this magic even when their parents don't,” Leo said.

“You think the elders would know if there was a half demon wizard?” Paige asked.

“Maybe, but they don't usually bother with them often, so they might not too,” Leo said.

“Well, I'm gonna go ask anyway,” Paige said before orbing away.

“Phoebe, are you okay?” Piper asked. Her sister was acting a bit weird about this. She was way too sure that this boy was an innocent, and Piper understood to a certain extent. It was a kid. But it wasn't the first time that a demon looked innocent. They once had to take on a bunch of demon children that escaped their prison in an ice cream truck. Phoebe knew to be more skeptical than this.

“I don't know. When I had that premonition and saw that kid, I felt weird. It was like I recognized him, but at the same time, I know I've never seen him before,” Phoebe said. She'd had that feeling from the very moment she'd laid eyes on him. 

“Do you think that's why you're so sure he's an innocent?” Piper asked. 

“I don't know. Like I said, my instincts are telling me I'm supposed to protect him. It's like they're screaming that,” Phoebe said.

“Okay, but just try to consider the fact that he might just be the one we're supposed to stop,” Piper advised. 

Phoebe nodded and got up. She needed to get some air.


	2. Chapter 2

Paige orbed up to what her and her sister's dubbed Elderland. For years she'd been forced to go to the Golden Gate Bridge and call whenever she needed to see an elder, but after finally hearing enough of her complaints, they allowed her to come to them when she needed something.

Paige surveyed the area for an Elder she trusted. There weren't many of the she liked or trust. For instance, she would only talk to Odin if someone was about to die and there were no other Elders around. 

“Paige,” An Elder called out from behind her. 

Paige turned to see Sandra, one of her favorite Elders. “Hi.”

“Is everything alright? Is one of your charges in trouble?” Sandra asked concerned.

“No, all my charges are fine. I'm actually here on a Charmed thing, sort of. Phoebe had a premonition and she's kind of concerned about it,” Paige said. 

“Of course. Please, tell me about it,” Sandra said.

“Well, she saw this boy that she thinks is an innocent attacking a woman,” Paige said. She wasn't sure about the innocent thing. Yes, it was possible for half-demons to stay on the side of good if they were raised the right way, but it was also possible for them to go to the other side. They had no idea what side this kid fell on.

“She thinks he's an innocent?” Sandra asked.

“I'm not saying he's not, but it's suspect. He produced an energy ball,” Paige said.

Sandra frowned. “I don't understand. If he's a demon, why would your sister believe he's an innocent?”

“Her instincts tell her he is, and she could be right. After describing her premonition, Leo told us he thinks the kid might also be a wizard. He had a wand. Leo says that there are those like him all around that go to special schools when they're eleven. He says they have their own little society.”

Sandra's eyes dropped and she seemed to be in deep thought. “I see.”

Paige's eyes narrowed. “What do you see? Do you know something?”

“No, I was just thinking on how something like that might happen. Wizards and witches of that world normally keep to themselves,” Sandra said.

“Leo said that sometimes they're born to parents with no magic though,” Paige said.

“Yes, that's possible. Allow me to try to gather some information. Make no moves until you hear from me,” Sandra said before walking away.

Paige watched her leave. Something wasn't right. Sandra's demeanor changed when Paige told this boy was not only part demon, but part wizard too. She knew something. But Paige couldn't really do anything about that now, as the Elder had left and clearly wasn't going to tell her anything else right now, so she orbed out.

 

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

 

Piper was in the kitchen making potions. She knew that when they figure out where and when Phoebe premonition took place, they'd be heading there and would need to be prepared. The only question was whether or not they would need to be prepared to save the boy in Phoebe's premonition or to stop him.

Piper was stirring her potion when she noticed Phoebe walk in from the back. “Hey. You okay.”

“Yeah, I just needed a little air. Did Paige come back yet?” Phoebe asked.

“It hasn't been that long. You really expect quick answers from the Elders?” Piper asked. 

Phoebe sighed. “I just don't know long we have. For all I know, my premonition already happened, or it's happening right now.”

“Well, no one was actually hurt in your premonition, right?” Piper asked.

“No, but with the way it ended, I don't see how the situation could not end with someone hurt. We have to get to that kid before he gets hurt,” Phoebe said.

“Or before he hurts someone,” Piper said pointedly. 

Just then, Paige orbed into the room.

“Hey. What did you find out?” Phoebe asked. 

“Absolutely nothing. The Elders just pushed me off. I spoke with Sandra and she said she'd try to figure it out and get back to us, but I think she already knows what's going on,” Paige said.

Piper narrowed her eyes. “What?”

“When she found out the kid was a wizard and a demon, she starting acting weird,” Paige said.

“Ugh, the God damned Elders! Why do they always have to be so damned evasive!” Piper fumed. 

“Well, we have to figure this out! An innocent kid is in trouble,” Phoebe said worriedly.

“Sandra doesn't want us to do anything else until we here from her,” Paige said. Not that she intended to wait, but she figured she'd at least put it out there. 

“No way. I'm not leaving this boy in trouble,” Phoebe said firmly. 

Just then, Coop and Leo came into the room. “Hey. Henry's picking up the kid's from school and then he's gonna take them all to his and Paige's place,” Leo said.

Piper nodded. “Good. Who knows how long this is gonna take?”

“Alright, well, since the Elders were no help, we have to figure out a way to find this boy,” Phoebe said. 

“We don't even know who he is. How are we going to find him? Paige asked.

“I don't know, but we have to!” Phoebe said loudly.

“Alright, you need to calm down. I know how serious you take your visions, but you're kind of losing it a little,” Piper told her sister.

Phoebe took a breath. “I'm sorry. Look, I don't know why this is affecting me so badly. Maybe because it's a child that's in trouble. I just know I have to save him.”

“How'd you get your premonition? Maybe that'll help us figure out some more information,” Leo said.

“Yeah, what were you touching?” Piper asked.

Phoebe stopped dead as she remembered the events before the vision. She hadn't thought about it before. She'd been so focused on the vision itself that she'd forgotten how she got it. It had come after she touched a picture of herself and Cole.

“What is it?” Paige asked, seeing the look on her sister's face. 

“It... It was Cole. I was touching a picture of me and Cole,” Phoebe told them.

“You still have those?” Paige asked.

“Yeah, she does,” Coop said bitterly as the hurt from finding that picture came back.

“Coop, please don't do this now. Look, yeah, I had one picture, and I didn't even remember that I had it. I touched it for one second and the premonition happened,” Phoebe said.

“Okay, so why would a picture of Cole trigger it? Do you think he knew this kid?” Piper asked.

“No. The boy was thirteen or fourteen tops, which means Cole was dead before he was even born,” Phoebe said

“Well, he must have something to do with it. God, this is just what we need. Even dead, he's causing problems,” Paige grumbled. She never did hide her hatred for Cole. 

“I'm afraid you're wrong, Paige,” a new voice started.

They all turned to see Sandra. 

“This was unfortunately started by us, for which I eternally apologize,” Sandra said sadly. 

“That was quick. I figured you'd take a while,” Paige said.

“I only wanted to confirm my suspicions. It didn't take long. And I apologize for lying to you about my knowledge, Paige, but I couldn't break a decision made by all of us before I was sure there was indeed a problem,” Sandra said.

“What are you talking about? What decision?” Phoebe answered.

“Yeah, what do you mean, you started this?” Piper asked accusingly.

“I will answer all your questions, I promise, but first, there is a party to the conversation not yet present,” Sandra said before waving her hand.

Phoebe watched as white lights appeared and turned into a man with short dark heir and blue eyes. A man she hadn't and could never forget. “Cole.”


	3. Chapter 3

The occupants of the kitchen all stared in shock, not understanding why a demon that had been vanquished a decade and a half a half ago was standing in their kitchen. Even Cole himself seemed surprised by his own pretense.

Paige decided to go ahead and voice what everyone was thinking. “What the hell? Why is he here?”

“Believe me, I don't want to be here. Why am I here?” Cole asked the Elder who'd summoned him. The last thing he knew, he was helping a lost soul find their way. Then all of a sudden in was in the Charmed Ones' kitchen, the last place he wanted to be. He thought he was done with dealing with them after he helped Piper, and ultimately Phoebe.

“Because there are things I need to explain and they involve you,” Sandra said.

“How do they involve him? No, actually, it doesn't matter. We don't need him to save that kid,” Phoebe said while glaring at her ex-husband. This was just what she needed. There was already discord with Coop because of that damned picture. Literally putting him back in their lives wasn't going to help that. 

“Agreed. Get him out of here,” Coop said angrily.

“Hey! I didn't ask to come here!” Cole snapped in annoyance.

“Okay, everyone, stop! This crap isn't helping anyone,” Piper said, taking control of the situation before it got farther out of hand. Then she turned to Sandra. “You, tell us what the hell is going on.”

“Yes, of course. I want you all to understand that this isn't something we all agreed with. There were those of us who felt it was the wrong choice,” Sandra said.

Piper eyed her suspiciously. Clearly this was going somewhere bad. These assholes had done something to screw with them, again. “What did you people do?”

Sandra looked at Phoebe as she spoke. “The boy from your premonition, Phoebe, his name is Harry Potter. He's fifteen-years-old.”

“Fifteen? He looked younger than that,” Phoebe commented.

“Wait, Harry Potter?” asked a shocked Leo. He'd heard of the boy. He was a whitelighter and then an Elder. He doubted there was anyone in either of those species that hadn't heard of Harry Potter.

Leo turned to her husband. “You know him?”

“No, of him. He's part of a prophecy. He's said to be the one meant to destroy an evil wizard trying to take take over the world,” Leo said.

“Oh, God, one of those? Why the hell do people put that crap on a kid?” Piper asked, quite annoyed. It wasn't the first time she'd heard of a kid being asked to do something like that. They'd met a boy years earlier that was supposed to be responsible for stopping an evil witch. It wasn't right. These were kids. They were supposed to be driving their parents insane and procrastinating on homework, not fighting things that adults were perfectly capable of going after themselves. 

“Wait, so this means the kid is definitely an innocent then, right?” Paige asked.

“In the context of Phoebe's vision, yes, though the vision has already played out,” Sandra said.

“No. Is he okay?” Phoebe asked with concern. 

“Yes, he's fine. He survived the encounter and is back at his boarding school,” Sandra said.

“Great, so it's over. There's no problem. So why do we need the meeting, and again, why does he have to be here?” Paige asked as she pointed at Cole. 

“I'm afraid it's not over. Harry wasn't supposed to come into his demonic powers. All his active powers were bound when he was an infant,” Sandra said.

“Wait, this kid is part demon?” Cole asked. He figured as long as he was forced to be there, he should get caught up on what was going on. 

“Part demon, part wizard,” Leo answered.

“That's not entirely accurate, Leo. He's part demon, part wizard, part wwiccan,” Sandra said.

“Whoa! He's a witch?” Paige asked surprised. She hadn't heard of any witch willing to get with a demon, except for Phoebe. It wasn't something that generally happened.

“How is that possible. Demons and witches don't happen,” Coop said.

Phoebe sent her husband a look.

“Well, I mean aside from that. It was different circumstances,” Coop said. 

“Why were his powers bound?” Piper suddenly asked.

“They were too strong, and he didn't have the capacity to understand right from wrong, which means the darkness in his demonic powers could influence him too much. In the womb, he used his powers to try to harm someone he was angry at. He didn't understand that he shouldn't. It didn't help that for months, he'd been influenced by pure evil. We felt it best to keep his powers away permanently. Unfortunately, we couldn't strip his powers. We could barely bind them. He is very powerful,” Sandra explained

“But the binding broke,” Leo said.

“Yes. I believe that it just could not hold against such power anymore,” Sandra said. 

“Please tell me he's not living with his demon parent right now. If he is, we have to get him away. He has to learn to use his powers for good,” Phoebe said.

“Both his parents were killed when he was a baby, by the wizard he's supposed to stop. Wait, both his parents were from the wizarding type of magic, so where do the wiccan and demon roots come in?” Leo asked.

Sandra sighed and looked between Cole and Phoebe. “I have to tell you again how sorry I am. Harry's journey into the world wasn't conventional. He was ejected from his mother's body and into a demon as a fetus. When the demon was destroyed by his magic, he was ejected again and found another to reside in until he could be born.”

“That's freaking possible?!” Paige asked in shock and fascination.

“It's never happened before, but it's the only explanation we could come up with,” Sandra said. 

“You said he was ejected from his mother and taken by a demon. Then his magic destroyed her,” Phoebe summed up.

“It had help, but, yes,” Sandra confirmed.

“Help? Help from us?” Phoebe asked. She'd figured it out. The apologies, the similar story, Cole's presence, not to mention the deep need she had to save this boy. It all fit.

“What are you talking about, Phoebe. We had nothing to do with this,” Piper said confused.

Phoebe ignored her sister and continued to address Sandra. “Why do you keep apologizing, huh? Because you took Harry from his parents. You took him from me!”

“What?” Cole asked in shock and confusion. 

“Phoebe, what's going on?” Paige asked. 

“Think about it. Her story is way to familiar. A demon took Harry from his mother, from me, and the demon was the Seer. Then we used the Power of Three spell to force her to use his power to the point where it killed,” Phoebe explained.

Everyone in the room, aside from Sandra, looked shocked.

Phoebe turned back to Sandra and glared. “Then they found out he was alive and they decided not to say anything.”

“Our son? Our son is alive?” Cole asked with hope in his voice. He'd loved that child so much. His time as the Source was awful. It was like his body had turned into a cage he couldn't get out of. Only two things kept him going. Phoebe and his son. And he'd lost both. 

Sandra nodded. 

“You took their kid?” Piper asked, barely containing her anger. This was the reason she hated the Elders. They had a need to manipulate people's lives. It was one thing to do with with them though. They could defend themselves. Going after their children just infuriated Piper. 

“We didn't exactly take him,” she tried.

“You may as well have! You may as well have plucked him from his crib in the middle of the night!” Phoebe yelled angrily. She could hardly believe it. They stole her child. People who were supposed to be good robbed her of the right to raise her own son. She may not have shown it, but she loved and grieved that baby. How could she not. He was hers. He always felt like hers, no matter how hard she tried to convince herself that he wasn't.

“Why? Why didn't you tell us? He's our son! You had no right to keep him from us?” Cole said, just as angry. He agreed with Phoebe. They stole his child. They decided that they had the right to make decisions for his and Phoebe's son. Who knew what would've happened if they hadn't done that. Maybe they would've been a family. 

“We felt that it was better for him to be away from this type of magic. We thought maybe if he was away from it all, we wouldn't have to worry too much about him choosing evil,” Sandra told them. She knew it would only infuriate them more, but it was all she could offer.

“Who the hell are you to decide what's better?” Paige asked in disgust.

“Where is my son?” Phoebe demanded to know. 

“He's at school. You won't be able to get there. There are too many wards to stop you. In a few days, he'll be at his relatives home in England. The address is Number Four, Privet Drive, Little Whinging. I'm very sorry,” she said again.

“Get out. And I hope you realize you've burned your last bridge with us. Don't any of you come to us again,” Piper warned. She was done. This was the last straw. She'd found a way to forgive or at least tolerate after Gideon went after Wyatt and killed Future Chris because that was only one of them, but this was all of them. They would not deal with them again.

Sandra started to leave, but Coop stopped her. “Wait, what about him?” he asked as he motioned towards Cole.

Sandra looked at Cole. “Cole, I didn't merely summon you here. I brought you back as you were when you were vanquished. That means you have your powers from when you were Balthazar. Your penance is complete. Now all we ask is that you teach your son to use his demonic powers for good.”

“What about your penance?!” Cole snarled. She was crazy if she thought he was going to thank her for bringing him back after her and the rest of the Elders kept his son away.

Rather than answering, Sandra simply orbed out.


	4. Chapter 4

There was an eerie quiet between the six people currently in the Halliwell kitchen. No one seemed to be able to speak for a good five minutes, all of them trying to process what they'd been told. Finally, Paige broke the silence. “This really just happened?”

“Uh, huh,” Piper confirmed.

Coop went over to his wife. “Are you okay?”

“Not even close,” Phoebe said before bolting towards the back door. 

Coop immediately went to follow, but was stopped by a hand on his arm. He turned to see that it was Leo keeping him there.

“Coop, don't,” Leo said.

“Give her a few minutes to herself. She just got the biggest shock that anybody can possibly get,” Piper said. Ever her finding out that her whitelighter from the future was actually her son was less shocking than what Phoebe was dealing with.

“How does this happen? How the hell does something like this happen in real life?” Coop asked in bewilderment. He just couldn't believe it. His wife had a kid. She had a fifteen-year old boy with another man. How did he deal with that? This was going to change their lives dramatically. 

“The freaking Elders!” Piper snarled.

“I can't believe they did this,” Leo said. He'd lost his blind faith in the Elders after what happened with Wyatt and Chris by Gideon's hands, but it still hit hard to know that they all had a hand in taking a child away from his family, and it was even worse that it was also Leo's family.

“You can't believe it, huh?” Cole spoke, with a glare leveled at Leo, causing everyone to look at him. “You were an Elder, weren't you?”

“I didn't have anything to do with this, Cole,” Leo told him.

“Yeah? Why should I believe that? You were one of them! You expect me to believe they didn't include you in their decisions?” Cole asked.

“Okay, screw you, Cole. Who are you to start pointing fingers at anyone? We all know the things you've done,” Paige said. 

Cole turned his glare on her. “I am that kid's father!”

“Enough!” Piper yelled, getting everyone's attention. “Cole, Leo didn't become an elder until after this happened. Think about it. Our son was younger than yours and he had already been born when Leo got promoted. I know you're angry, but you're going after the wrong person.”

Cole huffed angrily and stormed out towards the living room. Phoebe wasn't the only one that needed time to think.

“That son of a bitch has a lot of nerve,” Paige fumed.

“Paige, they took his kid away,” Piper pointed out. She wasn't happy when Cole lashed out at Leo, which is why she spoke up to defend her husband, but she understood the anger Cole felt. He needed someone to lash out at, and since Leo used to be an Elder, he was an easy target.

“Oh, please, like he's a victim. This wouldn't even be happening if not for him. The evil powers that kid has are because of him,” Coop sneered.

“Okay, we've got bigger problems than placing blame right now. There is a kid out there that is a part of our family. Finding him and figuring out what we're going to do about it is all that matters,” Leo said. 

“Well, what happens next is really up to Phoebe and Cole, but I don't really see them not taking their kid back,” Piper said.

Coop looked away at the mention of Phoebe and Cole. Just hearing their names together hurt. He'd already been insecure at that stupid picture. Now the demon was back from the dead and shared a child with his wife. 

Piper noticed the Cupid's reaction to her words. “Coop, I'm sorry, but you're gonna have to get used to Cole being around. He's not going away.”

Coop didn't say anything in response. 

“This is gonna be a mess,” Paige stated. 

“Understatement,” Piper said.

“I think I'm gonna go home and let Henry know what's going on. Would you guys like us to keep your kids for the night?” Paige asked. 

“Yeah, that's a good idea. Thanks,” Piper said.

Paige nodded and walked away.

“Okay, I think I'm going to try talking with Phoebe. Coop, I know you wanted to, but I think she needs a sister right now,” Piper said.

Coop nodded that he understood. 

Piper immediately headed towards the door. She walked outside and found Phoebe sitting on the back step. “Hey.”

“I knew I was meant to protect him. I just knew it,” Phoebe said after a second.

Piper sat down next to her sister. “You're instincts were telling you he was yours.”

“I loved him so much, Piper. I didn't let you see it, but it hurt so badly when we thought he died,” Phoebe said.

“Believe me, Phoebe, I knew you loved him. You put on a good show. It was probably the best you ever lied in your life, but I still knew. I know you better than anyone,” Piper said. 

“I tried to tell myself that he wasn't mine. I tried to buy what the Seer told me, but I always felt like he was mine. And he was. That is my son and they took him from me,” Phoebe said with pain and anger laced in her voice.

“I'm so sorry, sweetie,” Piper said.

“I get why you hate the Elders so much now. I never liked them, but I never hated them either. They come anywhere me or my son again and I don't know what I'll do,” Phoebe said angrily.

“Oh, I understand. But the Elders aren't important now. Harry is. You need to decide what to do about him,” Piper said.

“He's my son. I want him back,” Phoebe said as if it were obvious.

“I know you do, but you have to consider some things. He's not a baby anymore. He's not gonna run to you and understand that you're his mother. He has family that he most likely loves,” Piper said.

“Piper, he's mine. What would you do if it were one of your kids?” Phoebe asked.

“I'd want the exact same thing and probably do the same thing. I just want to make sure you realize that you're going to have issues. He's not going to come here well-adjusted. You and Cole are in for a rough road when you bring him home,” Piper warned.

Phoebe cringed at the mention of Cole. She didn't even want to think about him.

Piper sighed. “You realize you're going to have to deal with him right, and you should do so soon.”

“I don't want to talk to Cole. I don't want anything to do with him,” Phoebe said stressed. 

“Well, you're gonna have to get over that because he's here and he's not gonna leave. Harry is his son too. He's not gonna walk away. You know he's not evil, since he didn't try to kill Sandra the moment she confessed, so you can't cut him out,” Piper said. Of course, she already knew Cole wasn't evil before that. He'd helped her when she got stuck in the Void with him. She supposed that was why she was so much more willing to be civil with him.

“I thought he was finally out of my life! I've moved on! Why does he have to be back no?!” Phoebe yelled in frustration. 

“Phoebe I know you don't want this, but it's how it is. Cole's back in your life and he's not going away. You need to talk to him now, before your son steps one foot back in your lives. He's gonna have enough to deal with without his parents going to World War Three. You need to hash out all your issues now and figure out a way to co-parent. I know you already understand this, but I want to remind you that it's not about you or Cole. It's about Harry,” Piper said.

Phoebe sighed. She knew her sister was right. She hated Cole and didn't want anything to do with him, but the fact that they had a son together made cutting him back out of her life impossible. She needed to find a way to coexist with him for Harry's sake. “Okay.”

 

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

 

Meanwhile, Cole was in the living room looking at a picture of Leo with his boys that rested over the fire place. He thought of himself taking similar pictures with his son if he'd known he was alive. The Elders took his chance to be a parent away. He might have been able to hold onto his sanity more if he knew he had a son that needed him. Yes, the powers he took from the wasteland were what drove him the most mad, but he might have been able to fight better if he had something to fight for. He would've fought as hard as he could for Harry. 

Cole soon heard footsteps. He turned around to see Leo there. “I'm sorry, Leo. I know you wouldn't have kept our son away. I shouldn't have blamed you.”

“It's okay. I know you were angry and needed someone to take it out on. I used to be an elder, so I suppose I was the perfect target,” Leo said. He hadn't taken it personally. He knew what it was like to want to lash out. He'd felt that kind of anger after Future Chris died. Nothing could tame his anger for a long time. 

“You know, I was told over and over again how evil I was And in the end, yeah, it was true, but those bastards up there, they're more evil than I could ever be,” Cole said angrily. 

Leo wished he could say that Cole was wrong, but he couldn't. It didn't get much more evil than stealing a child. About the only thing worse was Gideon trying to kill a child, and honestly, Leo wondered how many of his former colleagues had voted to kill Harry, because he was sure that option was on the table. “I'm so sorry. No one deserves what they did to you and Phoebe.”

Just then, Coop walked into the room. 

“Uh, Coop, you may wanna go back to the kitchen,” Leo advised when he saw him. A confrontation between Coop and Cole would not be pretty and it really wasn't the time for it. Cole was already pissed because of the Elders.

“Or he could just leave. Or is he suddenly welcome here?” Coop asked while glaring at Cole. 

Cole glared back. “You may want to listen to Leo and get the hell our of here. Go find your wife, I don't care, but get the hell away from me.”

“Yeah, my wife. You're nothing to Phoebe anymore, so get lost!”

“Okay, both of you, stop,” Leo said as he stepped between them.

Cole took a couple of steps forward. “You listen to me, you little bastard. I'm not going anywhere, not ever. I don't know if you missed it, but my son is out there and we're going to bringing him home very soon. I will be a part of his life. I don't care how you feel about it and I don't care how Phoebe feels about. My son is going to have me in his life!”

“Hey, knock it off,” Piper said as she and Phoebe entered the room. “This isn't needed.”

“We need to talk,” Phoebe said after a second of silence.

Coop assumed she was talking to him and nodded. “Yeah, that's a good idea. Do you wanna go home so we can have some privacy.”

Phoebe cringed at her husband's mistaken assumption. “I meant Cole.”

Coop's face fell. “Oh.”

“Coop, I have to,” Phoebe said, trying to make him understand.

“Yeah, sure. I'm gonna go to Henry and Paige's to check on the girls,” Coop said before beaming out. 

“We'll be in the kitchen. Please don't break anything in a fit of anger,” Piper told them before taking Leo's hand and heading into the kitchen, leaving the two ex's together alone for the first time in sixteen years.


	5. Chapter 5

After a few seconds of silence, Cole decided to take the bull by the horns and let Phoebe know exactly what his intentions were. “I meant every word I just said. I'm going to be a part of my son's life and I don't care what any of you think about it.”

“Why should you get to be in his life? You shouldn't even be here! Why did you have to come back and disrupt my life?!” Phoebe asked angrily.

“Take it up with Elders! They're the ones who brought me back, and now that I'm back, I'm not going away. Not when I have a boy out there that needs me,” Cole told her.

“He doesn't need you. I can take care of my son just fine!” Phoebe yelled. She'd heard what Piper said about not cutting Cole out, but at the same time, she didn't think Cole deserved to know Harry, not after everything they've done.

“Yeah? What are you going to do for him? Teach him that his powers are bad? Call him evil the first time he throws an energy ball?” Cole asked angrily.

“I would never do that!” Phoebe exclaimed in outrage. How dare he accuse her of possibly hurting her own son. She loved him every bit as much as her girls. 

“Excuse me if history tells me otherwise,” Cole said bitterly. He wasn't sure when he became so angry at Phoebe. He didn't feel that way after his last vanquish or even when he met Piper in the Void a couple of years later, but somewhere over the years of having nothing to do but help lost souls and think about the past, he started to see things differently and became angry.

“Oh, don't pretend you are like our son! You were the Source of all Evil! Then you took on like a thousand powers from the demonic wasteland and became even more evil! You ruined my life! You turned me into your evil queen when you were the Source!” Phoebe yelled.

“Screw you!” Cole screamed back. “You made that choice, not me! I never even asked you to do that!”

“No, but you were poisoning me with the Seer's evil tonic! You were poisoning our son too!” Phoebe said. She couldn't believe he had the audacity to try to blame her for any of this. He was the one that became the Source and then tried to turn her evil too. 

“Oh, I see. So you have no responsibility because magic was influencing you, though not totally taking you over, but I have to take all responsibility while being possessed by the Source!” Cole screamed. 

Phoebe did a double take. “What are you talking about, possessed. You weren't possessed. You took just took in the Source's powers.”

Cole laughed, though there was no humor in his voice. “Oh, Wow. You're really that stupid.”

Phoebe looked at him insulted. “Excuse me.”

“Allow me to explain to you in small words exactly what happened, then you can come out of your fantasy world and realize exactly what you did to me! The Seer tricked me into taking in the Hollow, which I regret more than anything. I should've just let you all die,” Cole said. It was a lie. If he had to redo it, he would in a second, but he wanted to hurt Phoebe, and letting her think he hated her so much that he'd let her die if he could go back seemed like the perfect way.

Phoebe couldn't help the flinch at her ex-husband's words. She just never thought he'd say something like that. Even when he was evil, he was never so hateful with her. In fact, he was professing his love for her. 

“As I was saying, after I was tricked by the Seer and helped you and your sisters kill the Source's powers and essence found their home in me. No matter how hard I tried to fight it, I couldn't. He was too strong. So I was trapped in my own body,” Cole told her. 

“That's not true. You're lying,” Phoebe said. As she said it though, she knew he wasn't, not because she suddenly trusted him, but because of the way he looked and spoke. He wasn't trying to get her back. He was trying to make her see why he hated her so much. And she knew he hated her. She could see it in his eyes. It felt so wrong to see that look in his eyes directed towards her.

“I really don't give a damn what you think, Phoebe. I stopped caring about your opinion a long time ago. The only reason I don't leave and vow never to see your face again is because of Harry. He's my son and I'm gonna be there for him. I won't let you cut me out,” Cole said firmly

Phoebe was silent for a minute, just taking in what he said and how he obviously felt. Then she said the only thing that came to her mind. “Okay. But if we're going to co-parent, we have to get over how much we hate each other.”

“I won't let Harry see it if you won't. To that end, get your husband under control. I don't care how he feels about me, but he's not going to expose our son to that,” Cole said firmly.

“Fine,” Phoebe agreed. It wasn't an unreasonable request. She would expect the same from Cole if he was remarried. “So what should we do now. Do we really wait to get Harry?”

“I don't want to wait, but I'm not sure we have a choice,” Cole said before taking a seat on the couch. “I know a little about the Wizarding World. Their schools are heavily warded, just like the Elder said. It's guarded against all forms of magical transportation, so we wouldn't even be able to get in. Plus, do we really want to get into a possible fight with Wizards. Is that how we want our son to meet us?”

Phoebe sat down next to Cole, though she kept a space between them. “But what if the Elders do something in the meantime to keep him from us.”

“I don't think they'd tell us if they were going to keep us apart. Look, I think it's better to just go in quietly and speak to the people that have been taking care of him. That also gives us time to prepare. I know you have other children. You'll want to prepare them,” Cole said.

“Yeah, you're probably right,” Phoebe said.

Just then, Piper walked into the room. “Everything good in here?”

“I don't know about good, but we'll deal,” Phoebe said before standing up. “I'm gonna go home. It's been like a super long day,” Phoebe said.

“Okay. Well, since you beamed here and both Paige and Coop left, go ahead and take my car for the night,” Piper said. 

“Thanks,” Phoebe said before heading towards the kitchen.

“I should go too,” Cole said as he stood up. He had no idea where he was going, of course. He just came back from the dead. He had no place to live. 

“We both know you don't have anywhere to go. Do you wanna stay the night?” Piper asked. 

Cole raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Why would you even offer that?”

“Because you helped me once when I was close to dying and losing my husband. Plus, Leo and I heard what you were saying about the Source. You were pretty loud. Is it true?” Piper said. If it was, they all had a lot to make up for. He didn't deserve to be vanquished if he was really possessed.

“Yeah,” Cole said bitterly.

Piper sighed. “Then the least I can do to make amends is let you sleep on my couch.”

“Okay, thanks,” Cole said.

Piper nodded and headed for the stairs.

 

Xxxxxxxxxxx

 

Harry woke up with start. He'd just had a nightmare about the department of mysteries incident. It wasn't Sirius death he dreamed about though. No, he was dreaming about what happened with Bellatrix. He was dreaming about the strange ball of what seemed to be electricity appearing in his hand. He'd had that ball in his hand for several moments before it went out. Luckily, no one but Bellatrix saw it. Well, Voldemort probably did to since he was in his head, but no one he cared about did.

Harry had been scared of what happened. It just wasn't something that was supposed to happen. As far as he knew, nothing like that had happened to anyone else. Of course, that was very typical of his life. First, he survives a killing curse no one ever survives, then in his second year, he finds out he can speak a rare language no one else can, and know balls of electricity appeared in his hand. He just wished for once he could be normal.

Harry had considered telling someone at first, but he was afraid. What if it was some dark thing that was inside him that made him do it? What if it was just more proof that he was turning into Voldemort? No, he didn't want anyone to know what happened, especially Dumbledore.

If there was one thing Harry learned from Sirius' death, it was that he couldn't trust Dumbledore. The man had kept the truth about the prophecy for years. If he had been completely up front, Sirius might still be alive. Harry would never go to him with anything ever again.

After a few moments, Harry laid back down and willed himself to forget about the Department of Mysteries. What happened that night wouldn't happen again. It just couldn't.


	6. Chapter 6

Phoebe woke up the next morning at around seven. She hadn't really gotten a lot of sleep. Her thoughts were on her son. She kept wondering about him. She wondered what he would be like. What his favorite foods were. What he did for fun. She wondered who he was more like, her or Cole. She also worried about his reaction to who she and Cole were. She wasn't stupid. She knew he wasn't going to jump for joy to learn his life had been a lie. It was going to take time for him to see her and Cole as his parents. 

Cole was another thing Phoebe thought about last night. She couldn't get the things he said to her about how he'd become the Source out of her head. She wanted to pretend that he was lying, but he wasn't. He hated her because she'd failed him. And she had. She didn't even try to save him. She just assumed the worst and destroyed him. And yet, at the same time, she hated Cole as much as he hated her. She shouldn't because she know knew it wasn't his fault, but she did because all she could see were the things he did, whether he was in control of his actions or not. All she could see was his body doing them.

Phoebe's thoughts were interrupted when Coop entered the room. He looked like he had been up for a while as he was fully dressed. 

“Morning,” Coop said, though he didn't sound like it was such a good morning. 

“Hey,” Phoebe said as she sat up. “You're up early.”

“Yeah. I couldn't sleep much,” Coop said. 

“Me either. Are the girls up?” Phoebe asked.

“Parker and Peyton are. They're downstairs watching TV. PJ's still asleep,” Coop said.

Phoebe swung her legs over the side of the bed and sat on the edge. “We're going to have to tell them.”

“Are we even going to talk about it? You've talked to everybody about this but me,” Coop said. 

“Coop, it's not like I'm going out of my way not to talk to you. It's just that it was so overwhelming. I thought my baby was dead. Now he's alive and I missed his whole life. I don't know anything about him. They stole my son. Can you understand how shocking finding out something like that is?” Phoebe asked. She'd had some shocks in her life, but finding out her boy was alive beat every single one of them. 

“I understand that, Phoebe. I realize that this freaked you out, but it is me too. Yesterday, it was just the two of us and our girls. Now you got another kid out there with your ex-husband. He's back now and you wanted to speak to him before me,” Coop said. 

“I had to, Coop. Whether you like it or not, whether I like it or not, Cole is Harry's father. I have to deal with him,” Phoebe said. She really needed to get her husband to stop being so insecure. Cole was going to be a part of their lives. He had to find some way of dealing with that. 

“So you're going to let him be around?” Coop asked.

“Honestly, I very much doubt I could stop him if I wanted to, and at first I did want to, but as much as I wanted to deny it, Harry needs Cole. No one can help him understand his demon powers the way Cole can. I certainly can't, nor can anyone I know. Plus, he deserves his father's love, and no matter what else, Cole loves him,” Phoebe said. 

Coop walked over and sat next to her on the bed. “So he's just going to be a part of our lives from now on.”

“Yes, and you have to accept it. You can't jump down his throat every time you see him or hear his name. Harry will pick up on that and it's not fair. I don't want him seeing any discord between you,” Phoebe said firmly. This was non-negotiable as far as she was concerned. She did not want her son put in the middle of his father and stepfather. He had enough to deal with.

“You really think that can be avoided? We don't like each other, Phoebe. We're not going to be able to completely hide that,” Coop said. 

“I know that. Harry can know you're not best friends without seeing you fight or hearing you say bad things about each other. All, I'm asking for is civility, and it's not just you. I have to learn to do it too and so does Cole. You, me and Cole, we all have to work together here,” Phoebe said.

“You say that like he's part of our family,” Coop said in disgust. 

“Well, where Harry's concerned, he is. I know you don't like it. I know you somehow think that I still have feelings for him. You're wrong. I love you. Cole is just the father of my child, and he feels the same way about me,” Phoebe assured him. 

Coop snorted. He didn't believe that for a second. “Yeah, right.”

“It's true, Coop. Trust me, after the conversation we had last night, I am positive that the only thing Cole feels for me is hatred,” Phoebe said.

“Why would he hate you?” Coop asked.

“It doesn't matter. Just understand that there is nothing between us. Now, I think we should go and talk to the girls. They need to know that they have a brother,” Phoebe said.

Coop nodded and stood up. “I'll get PJ up. I've got breakfast ready. We can talk after we eat,” he said before heading out of the room.

 

Xxxxxxxxxxx

 

After breakfast, Phoebe and Coop led their children into the living room. Phoebe and Coop sat on either end of the couch. Coop picked his youngest daughter, Peyton, up and put her on his lap. The other two girls sat between him and Phoebe. “So we have something to tell you guys, okay?”

“Is it bad? Is there a demon?” Parker asked.

“No, honey, nothing like that. It's actually something good,” Phoebe said.

“Are you having another baby?” PJ asked, remembering a similar conversation when her mom and dad told them about Peyton.

“No, but you're pretty close,” Phoebe said. “PJ, you know how your friend, Megan, has a little brother that's only her dad's baby and not her mom's?”

“Yeah, it's because her mom and dad are divorced,” PJ said.

“Right. Well, a long time before your dad and I met, I was married to someone else, and we were going to have a baby, but some bad people tricked us,” Phoebe said.

“Demons?” Peyton asked. 

“There were demons involved, but it was people we thought were the good guys that tricked us. They didn't want us to have the baby, so they let us think that he died,” Phoebe told them.

“That's mean. Why would good guys do that?” Parker asked. 

“It's hard to explain, sweetie. They just didn't want us to have him. But we know now that he didn't die and we've found him. That means that you guys have a big brother,” she said. 

“I'm not the oldest anymore?” PJ asked, not sounding very happy about it.

“No, he's older than you, but I don't want you to think that changes anything for you. Nothing is going to change for any of you, except that now you have a new family member. It's a good thing,” Phoebe told them.

“Is he going to live with us?” Parker asked.

“Most of the time. Sometimes he'll stay with his dad. You guys get what I've told you about his dad, right. His dad isn't your dad,” Phoebe said.

The two older girls nodded. They knew very well about step families.

“But if he's our brother, how can he have another daddy?” Peyton asked.

“Sometimes brothers and sisters don't have to have the same mommy or daddy. Sometimes they only have the same mommy or the same daddy,” Coop tried to explain. 

“Yeah, and your bother shares me with you. You have the same mommy,” Phoebe added.

“Oh. What's his name?” Peyton asked.

“His name is Harry.”

“He doesn't have a 'P' name, like us,” Parker pointed out.

“I know. That's because another family that loved him gave him his name,” Phoebe said.

“How old is he?” PJ asked.

“He's the same age as Wyatt, only a few months older,” Phoebe answered.

“Is he like Wyatt?” PJ asked a bit guarded. She loved her cousin, but he could be bossy sometimes. Sometimes he also told on her when she did something wrong. Her and Melinda got into a fight one day when he was watching them and he told on them. 

“I don't know. I haven't met him yet,” Phoebe said. She hated saying she didn't know what Harry was like, even to her own children. She should be able to answer questions about her own child. She was never going to forgive the Elders for what they took from her. 

“When is he coming here?” Parker asked.

“Well, his dad and I are going to go to his house tomorrow. Hopefully he'll come home soon after that,” Phoebe said. She couldn't say they'd be bringing Harry home tomorrow. That was the plan in her head last night, but after thinking about it, she realized it might not be the best move. It was cause her son so many problems. They needed to give him a chance to adjust to the changes that were to come. They couldn't shove it all at him all at once. 

“Are you guys okay with this?” Coop asked. 

“I guess so,” PJ said, honestly not too sure how she felt.

The other girls nodded. 

“Alright, you guys go get dressed,” Phoebe told them. 

They all got up and ran to the stairs.

Phoebe got up. “Alright, I have to go to Piper's and drop off her car.”

“I don't know why you didn't call me to get you last night,” Coop said.

“Yes, you do. You know exactly why. The last thing we needed was more tension,” Phoebe said.

“Are you going to be seeing him today?” Coop asked. 

“Probably. There are things that still need to be discussed,” Phoebe said before heading upstairs to get changed before her husband could start another argument. 

 

Xxxxxxxxxxx

 

Harry nodded off as he sat in one of the red chairs in the Gryffindor Common Room. As soon as he fell asleep, he found himself pulled into a very vivid dream.

Dream

Harry was on the floor in his bedroom in the Dursley home. There was a woman next to him with dark brown hair, holding him. She looked extremely upset as she looked at him, like she might cry any minute.

“It okay, sweetheart,” she said to him in a cracked voice.

Harry's eyes shifted. A few feet away, his uncle was being held by the neck, but a man. The man's back was to him, but Harry could see that he had short dark hair. Within seconds, the man produced a ball in his hands, much like the one Harry produced at the Department of Mysteries. The man looked as if he was going to launch it at Vernon.

Dream

Harry woke up with a start as he felt someone shake him. He looked around wildly to see Hermione. 

“Are you alright, Harry?” Hermione asked.

Harry honestly wasn't sure. That dream was extremely weird. It felt almost like his dreams about Voldemort only his scar didn't hurt afterwards. That electric ball thing didn't make him feel any less freaked out about it either. He supposed it could be that he had it on his mind and that's what caused his dream, but he wasn't sure.

“Harry?” Hermione pressed. 

“I'm fine. I just had a nightmare,” Harry said. He wasn't actually sure it was a nightmare, but it had him worried, so he'd call it one anyway.

“Was it about You Know Who?” Hermione asked concerned.

Harry should his head.

“Sirius?” Hermione asked. That seemed like the likely alternative. She knew Harry was hurting badly from the loss of his godfather. It would make sense for him to dream about him. 

“No, it was just a normal nightmare. I don't want to talk about it,” Harry said.

Hermione didn't really believe him, but she decided not to press him. Harry needed to deal with his pain at his own pace. “Alright, well, Ron's waiting for us outside. Remember? We have to go say goodbye to Hagrid since it's the last day of term.”

Harry nodded and stood up, following one of his two best friends out of the Common Room.


	7. Chapter 7

The next day, Phoebe walked in through into the Manor with her kids. “Piper!”

“Kitchen!” Piper called out to her. 

Phoebe led the girls to the kitchen where they found Piper wiping down the counter. “Hey. 

“Hey. Hi, girls,” Piper greeted her nieces with a smile. 

“Hi, Aunt Piper.. Mommy says were gonna have a pool party!” Peyton said excited.

“That's right. Uncle Leo set the pool up last week. Your cousins are already in there,” Piper said. After several years of the kids begging, she and Leo finally caved and got a pool.

“I wanna go with you, Mom. I wanna meet Harry,” Parker said. 

“Honey, I told you, he has to meet me and his dad first. We can't all crowd him,” Phoebe said.

“Besides, you're gonna have a ton of fun with your sisters and cousins. Why don't you guys go on back and go for a swim?” Piper suggested. 

“Go ahead,” Phoebe encouraged.

All three girls started heading for the backyard. 

“Thanks for turning this into a party. Hopefully, it'll keep them distracted,” Phoebe said.

“Yeah, we'll do our best. We can't really compete with a new brother, but we'll try to be a close second. Actually, we're trying to keep all the kids distracted. The others keep asking about their new cousin too,” Piper told her. “How are doing?”

“I'm a nervous wreck. I have so many things going through my head. What if he hates me? I mean, he doesn't know me. What if he resents us for disrupting his life?” Phoebe asked.

“I won't lie and say that's not possible, but I think as long as you give him the time to get adjusted and get to know you, he will come to love you. Of course, that also means respecting his family. I know you want to bring him home and I don't blame you, but I think you should give it a bit of time and maybe make him and the people that raised him aware that it doesn't mean they'll be kicked out. What the Elders did isn't their fault?” Piper said.

“I know. We're going to take it one step at a time,” Phoebe said. She'd talked with Cole yesterday when she came to return Piper's car. They'd both agreed, after having time to sleep on it, that it wasn't such a great idea to rush things. They still wanted their son to come home to them, but they had to go slower than they originally intended.

“That's a good idea. So where's Coop?” Piper asked. 

“He's got a new charge to help find love. It's probably better. He and Cole being in the same room isn't the best. Speaking of Cole, where is he?” Phoebe asked. When she got there yesterday, Piper had told her she was letting Cole stay for a bit. It surprised her. She hadn't really expected her sister to warm up to Cole that way. She didn't hate him as much as Paige did, but she still wasn't a fan, not since what happened when he was the Source. 

“He left early this morning to go apartment hunting. I think he was also hoping it would take his mind off things until you guys could go,” Piper said. 

“Well, hopefully he gets back soon. We need to go,” Phoebe said.

“Listen, I understand why you guys need to do this alone. You don't wanna put too much on Harry all at once. But if something happens, call us right away,” Piper said. Her sister was going to meet people that were likely magical, and they had a type of magic none of the sisters understood. There was no telling how it could go. 

“We will, but we should be okay. We have my powers and Cole's if it comes down to that,” Phoebe said.

Just then, Cole appeared in the room. “Hey, we ready?”

“Yeah. Kind of anyway,” Phoebe said. She still had knots in her stomach at the prospect of her son's reaction. 

“It'll be okay. Just remember to call Paige if you need help and we'll come right away. Oh, and take a picture. We wanna see him,” Piper said.

Phoebe chuckled. “We will.”

“Okay, let's go see our boy,” Cole said before sticking out his hand. As soon as she took it, he shimmered them both away.

 

Xxxxxxxxxxx

 

Cole and Phoebe materialized right outside a decent sized, two story house. “Okay. We're here. Our son's in there,” Cole said before ringing the doorbell.

A few seconds later, the door was answered by an obese boy who looked about fifteen. “Who are you?” the boy asked in a rude tone. 

Cole gave Phoebe a questioning look, wondering if this was their son. He'd seen him in a premonition, so she'd know.

Phoebe shook her head and then turned to the boy. “Hi, are your parents home?”

“Mum!” the boy bellowed.

A second later, a tall woman with short, curly hair answered the door. She looked a bit nervous. “Hello. I'm sorry, but this is bad time. Please come back later.”

Phoebe put her hand on the door just as the woman went to close it. “No, wait. Please, we need to talk to you. It's...” she trailed off as shouting and a loud crash could be heard from upstairs.

“What's that?” Cole asked.

“Oh, it's just my nephew. He can be rather clumsy. If you'll excuse me, I must go check on him,” she said hastily as she went to close the door again.

This time, Cole was the one to stop her. He shoved the door open and pushed his way inside. Something wasn't right. He could feel it. 

“Wait a minute! You can't just force your way into folks' houses. Leave before I call the authorities,” the woman demanded.

They heard another noise, this time it sounded like a punch.

Cole rushed to the stairs and took them two at a time. He didn't even bother checking to see if Phoebe was behind him, though he was certain she was. As he got up the stairs, the violent noises became louder and he could hear someone groan in pain. It seemed to come from a room at the end of the hall.

“I'm going to stamp the freakishness out out of you once and for all!” a man was screaming. 

When Cole entered the room, the sight horrified him. There was a boy on the ground bloody and bruised. He was curled in a ball trying to cover himself as a man three times the size of him repeatedly kicked him in the stomach.

“Oh my God!” Phoebe exclaimed as she took in the sight of her boy being beaten repeatedly. She'd imagined how several times how this would go, but she never could've fathomed that she'd find her son being abused.

Cole saw red. This piece of garbage was beating his son, and he was sure it was his son. He could just tell, probably the same way Phoebe was able to tell she was meant to protect him when she had her premonition. He just knew his own son.

Cole grabbed a hold of the whale-like man and pulled him off of his boy with ease. He practically threw him against the wall and grabbed him by the neck, squeezing tightly. “What's wrong with you, you piece of garbage! He's a child!”

“Unhand me, you have no right!” he said before feeling the pressure on his neck increase until he could no longer speak.

Phoebe, meanwhile, ran to her son's side. “No! Oh my God!”

Harry uncurled slightly and opened his eyes the best he could. It was bit difficult as they were both kind of swollen from his uncle punching him. Much to his surprise, he saw the woman from his dream. She was looking at him just as she had in his dream. 

Phoebe was on the verge of tears. Her little boy had two black eyes, a bloody lip, and who knew how many other injuries. That man had beat the hell out of him. How many other times had this happened to him. She couldn't believe it was the first time. People like that didn't just do it once. People like that liked to hurt people weaker than them.

Phoebe did her best to keep herself together. Her son needed her to be strong for him. “It's okay, sweetheart.

Cole continued to hold the man who'd just brutalized his son by the neck, squeezing so hard that the man was gasping for air. With his other hand, he produced an energy ball. He could kill him without his powers, but he wanted more than to kill him. He wanted to destroy him. 

Harry barely registered that his dream had completely come true when he heard his aunt's scream in the doorway.

“What are you people?” Petunia asked in fear. 

Phoebe turned around to see her husband prepared to commit murder. For once, she was inclined to let him, but they had bigger problems. “Cole, let him go!”

Cole turned and glared at his ex-wife. “No! Call me evil all you want, but this SOB does not get away with his.”

“Cole, if you wanna come back here and kill them later, I won't stop you, but we have bigger priorities than revenge,” she said as her eyes darted to their son. 

Cole looked at his son on the floor. Phoebe was right. Harry needed them right now. He could deal with these people another time, and he would. This was far from over. 

Reluctantly, Cole allowed his energy ball to disappear and released his grip on the bastard's neck, allowing to fall to the ground and start coughing violently. He then walked over to his ex-wife and their son. He bent down and picked his boy up, putting one hand under his shoulders and the other under his knees. 

Harry knew he should've fought as the strange man picked him up, but he had no strength to fight. His whole body hurt and he could barely move, hell, he could feel himself lose consciousness more and more. He simply didn't stand a chance at a fight at the moment.

Cole cradled the boy close and turned back to the things that called themselves his guardians. “Pray that we don't come back.”

Phoebe stood up and grabbed her ex-husband's arm. “We will be back,” she vowed.

Without another word, Cole shimmered them away.


	8. Chapter 8

Paige was laying in a lounge chair a few feet from the pool with a pair of sunglasses on to block out the sun. It wasn't often she got to do this. Even without the demons attacking every day, she was still a whitelighter, plus a mother of three, so relaxing wasn't always possible. Of course, she couldn't totally relax now either. She was worried about Phoebe and everything she now had to deal with.

Piper soon joined her sister with two glasses of lemonade in her hand. “Hey. Lemonade?”

“Oh, yeah, thanks,” Paige said as she took the offered glass. “Any word from Phoebe?”

Piper sat in the chair beside her sister. “Not in the last ten minutes, no. They just left. It's gonna be hours before we know anything.”

“You think this will go well? I mean, this kid probably doesn't know he's adopted. I've been there. It is not easy to deal with,” Paige said. She'd been very young when she found out she was adopted and while she leaned to accept it and realize it didn't change much for her, at least then, it took some time, and that was without biological parents showing up to complicate things.

“Yeah, and I've tried to warn Phoebe about that. I think she gets it now, but she's still going to be crushed if he doesn't accept her,” Piper said. 

“Life's going to be unbelievably hard for her for a while. Not only does she have a kid out there she doesn't know and might not accept her, she also has to deal with demon ex-husband she thought she'd never have to see again, and find a way to fit all this into the life she's already built,” Paige said.

“Yeah, from what I gather, Coop isn't handling this well. He doesn't want Cole around,” Paige said.

“I don't blame him. I don't want Cole around either,” Paige said, earning herself a look from her older sister. “What? I hate Cole. I'm not gonna deny that.”

Piper sighed. “Okay, I'm gonna say to you what I said to Coop when we first found out. Cole is going to be a part of our lives.”

“Yeah, yeah. Look, I'll do my best to be civil, but I'm always going to hate his guts,” Paige said.

“How about Harry? What do you think about him?” Piper asked. Her sister hadn't been all that excited when Phoebe was pregnant was Harry. Of course, that was understandable with how the kid had used his powers against her while he was still inside Phoebe

Paige took her sunglasses off and looked at her sister. “Look, I'm trying to keep an open mind. I know that a half-demon kid does not necessarily mean he's evil. You know how I felt when we found that half-manicore baby.”

Piper nodded. 

“But I remember what happened when Phoebe was pregnant. That kid tried to kill me. I mean, he pushed me out a window,” Paige reminded her sister. 

“I know, but like he was a fetus. He didn't have the mind to distinguish good from evil and which one to choose, plus as the Elder said he had been fed pure evil by the Seer,” Piper said.

“Yes, I know, and that's why I'm trying to keep an open mind. I want to be able to love him the same I do the girls and your kids. I just can't help but be a little bit guarded,” Paige explained.

Just then, they both heard Cole's voice as he made his way from the house. “Paige!”

Both woman were up within seconds after seeing him. “Damn it, that was way too quick!” Piper exclaimed as she and Paige rushed to follow Cole into the house. 

Leo, who had been standing a few feet away with Wyatt, also followed.

They all made their way through the house and into the living room, where they found Phoebe kneeling beside a teenager who looked badly beaten. 

“Oh my God!” Paige exclaimed. 

“What the hell happened to him?” Piper asked horrified.

Phoebe looked up at her little sister with tears streaming down her cheeks. “Paige you have to heal him, please!”

“What happened?” Leo asked as he looked at the boy. Someone had used this child as a punching bag. Someone had beat up a fifteen-year-old kid. What was wrong with them? How could anyone harm a child like this?”

“They were beating him! That monster was at least three times his size! He couldn't have defended himself if he tried,” Phoebe cried as ran a hand through her son's hair.

“Okay, Phoebe, I need you to move so I can help him,” Paige said as she moved closer. She felt sick just looking at this boy, her nephew, and knowing what was done to him. The only thing that kept her from being physically sick was knowing that he needed her help.

Cole walked over to Phoebe and pulled her up and away from their son.

“I'm not sure how much you're going to be able to do, Paige. He's half-demon,” Leo said. A whitelighter's healing touch didn't work with demons. It worked to some extent with half-demons, but not all the way. 

“Can I help?” a young voice from the doorway asked.

They all turned to see Wyatt. “Wyatt, you should be outside?” Piper said. She did not want her son seeing this. Wyatt had of course seen people hurt before, but this was different. This was not the result of a demon attack. Harry had the crap beat out of him by people who were supposed to love him. 

“I knew something was wrong when you all came in here. Please, let me help,” Wyatt said.

“It's a good idea. Remember when Cole was injured years ago? Paige and I were able to heal him together. They might both be able to heal Harry if they do it together,” Leo said. 

Wyatt didn't need any other permission than that. He ran to his aunt and new cousin. The two of them put their hands over Harry's body and watched as the golden glow emitted from their hands.

Phoebe and Cole watched with pain in their eyes, both feeling helpless that they couldn't physically do anything to help their son.

Wyatt frowned and looked up at his aunt. “What is that?”

“I don't know,” Paige said, already knowing what her nephew was asking about. 

“What's wrong?” Cole asked.

“Is he not healing?” Phoebe asked worriedly. She was pretty sure her son's injuries weren't life threatening, but she still didn't want him suffering anymore. 

“No, he is. It's just taking a lot longer,” Paige said. 

“Then what's going on?” Piper asked. 

“I can feel some kind of darkness in him,” Paige said.

“That's his half-demon side,” Leo stated.

Paige shook her head. “No, that's not it. I can feel that too. This is different. It's like it's him, but it's not. It feels like there's some kind of entity attached to him. It's making it harder to heal him.”

“Like he's possessed?” Cole asked in fear. He knew what possession felt like. It was one of the worst things he'd ever felt in his entire life. The only thing that felt worse was losing Phoebe and Harry. That couldn't happen to his son.

“I don't know. I don't think so, but I've never felt something like this when I went to heal someone,” Paige said.

“If he were possessed, whatever was possessing him would've been able to defend him when he was being attacked,” Piper reasoned.

Paige soon noticed the lightening bolt scar and had a hunch. “Wyatt, keep going. I have an idea.” She moved her hands from her nephew's stomach to his forehead and concentrated on the scar. What she felt before was much stronger there than it had been before. As soon as she tried to heal it, it began to fight her power, so she stopped. It was a bad idea to try to heal it any further right now. “It's the scar. Whatever the problem is, it's rooted in that scar.”

“It's a cursed scar. He got it when he was a baby. The wizard that killed his adopted parents tried to kill him. The curse rebounded and the backlash gave him that scar,” Leo explained.

“Someone tried to kill him? My God, how many people are going to hurt him. He's just a kid,” Phoebe cried.

Paige and Wyatt stopped their healing after a few moments. There were still a couple of bruises and Harry was still unconscious, but there didn't seem to be much more then could do. “We've done all we can. His demon half and that scar won't let us do much else,” Paige said. 

“I think he's healed for the most part anyway, except for a couple of bruises,” Wyatt added.

“Why is he still unconscious then?” Cole asked.

“I don't know. Maybe because we weren't able to heal all of him and his body's spent from the ordeal. But there are no more serious injuries that need healing. He'll be okay,” Paige promised.

“Okay, we should get him upstairs then. He could use a bed to sleep in,” Piper said.

“He can have my bed,” Wyatt offered.

“Thanks, honey,” Phoebe said. 

Cole went over and picked his son up and carried him towards the stairs. Phoebe followed him.

“Uh, I'll get Henry and we'll round the kids up. We'll take them home with us for the night,” Paige said.

“Thank you. I don't think it's a good idea for them to be around tonight. They'll ask too many questions, plus a full house might overwhelm Harry when he does wake up,” Piper said.

“I wanna stay,” Wyatt spoke. “I could be here in case we have to try healing Harry again, and maybe it'll be good for him if someone his age is here. Then he won't totally flip out when he wakes up in a strange place.”

“He could be right. While having most of the kids go is a good idea, having one might be helpful,” Leo said.

“Alright, you can stay,” Piper agreed.

Wyatt looked towards the stairs. “His family really did that to him?”

Leo put his hand on his son's shoulder. “Some parents aren't meant to have children, buddy. Some see kids as a way to show how strong they are.”

“He won't have to go back, right?” Wyatt asked.

“Absolutely not,” Piper said immediately. Taking their time with bringing Harry home and working with his family was officially off the table. In fact, she was tempted to have Paige orb her to them so she blow them up.

“If I know Cole, they won't even live long enough for that to be an issue,” Paige said. For once, it wasn't a criticism. For once, she'd help Cole if he asked.


	9. Chapter 9

The next morning, Piper was in the kitchen getting breakfast together when Paige orbed in. “Morning.”

“Morning,” Paige greeted back.

“How are Chris and Melinda?” Piper asked. 

“Good. Chris seemed a little over being forced to leave home twice in the last week, and it doesn't help that Wyatt got to stay. That seemed to annoy him,” Paige said.

“Yeah, well he can deal,” Piper said in a firm tone.

“How's Phoebe?” Paige asked.

Piper sighed. “I haven't really seen her since you left yesterday. She and Cole spent the night in Wyatt's room sitting with Harry. I don't think they got much sleep.”

“So he still hasn't woken up?” Paige asked. 

“Not that I know of,” Piper said.

“I can't believe it turned out this way. Well, okay, I can believe people are evil enough to beat kids. I've seen it enough times when I worked for social services,” Paige said.

“But it's hard knowing it happened to your own nephew,” Piper said.

Paige nodded. “You know, even after everything I've seen as a witch, a child abuser will always be the worst thing in the world to me. I will never understand how someone can harm a child.”

“Good. That's something I don't think you ever want to understand,” Piper said.

Just then, Cole and Phoebe walked into the room, both with bags under their eyes. “I need coffee,” Phoebe said.

Piper wordlessly pointed to the pot.

“How are you doing?” Paige asked her sister. 

“He's still not awake. I'm worried,” Phoebe said as she poured herself a cup of coffee. Cole got his next.

“Wyatt and I could try to heal him again,” Paige offered. Honestly, she wasn't sure it would do any good though. They'd stopped healing Harry last night because it stopped working. 

“If he doesn't wake up soon, we might just have to try it,” Cole said before taking a sip of his coffee. 

 

Xxxxxxxxxxx

 

Harry bolted up seconds after he opened his eyes, an act he instantly regretted as his body was still quite sore from the 'conversation' he had with his uncle. Although, once he thought about it, he wasn't nearly as sore as he should be. He'd been beaten like that a few times in his life, and a few times even worse. The next day, his whole body felt bruised. It felt bruised now, but not nearly as bad. 

Harry looked around the room. There were two beds, one he was on and the other was across from him. There were also two dressers and two closets. Two people clearly shared this room. There were also some posters along the walls, some of what looked like music bands and some of ball players. There were also a couple of backpacks laying by the closet and some board games on the top shelf of the closet. All this told Harry that kids shared this room. 

Harry wondered why he was there. He remembered what happened. His dream from the other day turned into reality. Those people had come to the Dursleys, and stopped his uncle from hurting him. The man had then tried to kill Vernon with the same thing Harry almost killed Bellatrix with Whoever that man was, he was at least somewhat like him. But Harry still didn't understand why they helped him or where they brought him? Were they really trying to help him or did they work for Voldemort?

Harry was also quite troubled the the fact that his dream had come true. Of course, ti wasn't the first time a dream of his had come true, but Dumbledore had recently told him that those dreams were because of his connection to Voldemort. But how could that be when his last dream had nothing to do with Voldemort? Was Dumbledore wrong? Did he get these dreams because he was a seer? 

Before Harry could contemplate these questions further, the door to the room he was in cracked open. His hand immediately moved to the pocket where his wand was usually kept. Then he remembered that he didn't have it. His uncle had locked it up after he arrived.

Harry watched warily as a blond boy who looked about his age entered the room. Well, okay, the boy didn't look his age, but that was because Harry was really small for his age. He looked about Ron's age though, and Harry and Ron were the same age, with Ron being a few months older. 

“Hi. I didn't wake you, right?” the boy asked.

“No. I was awake,” Harry said.

The boy sighed in relief and walked in. “Good. My mom would've killed me. I didn't want to risk disturbing you, but I had to get some clothes.”

“Who are you?” Harry asked.

“I'm Wyatt,” the boy introduced himself, moving closer and sticking his hand out.

Harry hesitantly took the boy's hand. “Harry.”

“It's nice to meet you,” Wyatt said.

“Where are we?” Harry wondered.

“San Francisco, California,” Wyatt answered.

“America?!” Harry exclaimed with a gobsmacked expression on his face. He supposed he should've guessed. The couple last night had an American accent and so did Wyatt.

Wyatt chuckled. “Yeah, you're a little far from home.”

“Why was I brought here?” Harry asked, still a little shocked.

“Um, my Aunt Phoebe and Cole should probably explain that,” Wyatt said a bit nervously. He seriously was not going to be the one to blab that Harry was their son. 

“Is that who brought me here?” Harry asked.

Wyatt nodded. “They weren't going to. They planned to just talk to you and your family, but then they had no choice.”

Harry looked away uncomfortably. No one had ever known about the Dursleys He went out of his way to make sure no one found out. If people knew his relatives hated him so much, he would feel that they'd see him as the freak he was made out to be by them. He felt that way now, even when the people who knew were strangers.

Wyatt could see he'd upset his cousin and decided to change the subject. “Do you wanna go downstairs? I can smell my mom's cooking, so breakfast will probably be ready soon.”

Harry's stomach grumbled and his mouth watered at the mention of food. He was really hungry. He hadn't eaten since the sweets he'd had on the train home from Hogwarts.

Wyatt chuckled. He could see from the look on his cousin's face that he was hungry. “Come on, let's go downstairs. Wait, I forgot, I have to change first. Do you wanna change?”

“I don't have anything but what I'm wearing,” Harry stated.

“I don't think we're the same size, but you'd probably fit into something of my brother's,” Wyatt said before going over to his brother's dresser and pulling out some bluejeans and a red T-shirt. He then brought them to Harry. “Here, this should work.”

“Your brother won't mind?” Harry asked.

“Nah. Chris' is pretty good about sharing his stuff. You can change here. I'll go in the bathroom,” Wyatt said before going to his own dresser and grabbing a change of clothes. Then he headed out of the room. 

 

Xxxxxxxxxxx

 

Phoebe stood up from her seat at the counter. “I should go back up and check on Harry.”

“Wait, you should eat something first, both of you. You guys didn't eat dinner last night,” Piper said. 

“We'll eat later. Phoebe's right, we need to check on our...”

“Guys,” Paige interrupted as she noticed both her nephew enter the room. 

Phoebe and Cole both turned around to see their son. “Hi. Are you doing okay?” Phoebe asked. She wanted to pull him into a hug, but she knew he couldn't. He didn't know her and wouldn't feel comfortable being hugged by her.

Harry nodded, not sure what else to do.

“I'm Phoebe. This is Cole, and that's Piper and Paige,” Phoebe introduced them. 

Hey, pal,” Cole greeted with a smile.

“Hello,” Harry said hesitantly. He didn't trust any of them, but he thought it best not to antagonize them or try to run. He was very outnumbered and he didn't have his wand. So he opted to be polite for the moment.

“Are you hungry? Piper just made a bunch of food,” Phoebe said.

“Yeah, here,” Piper said before grabbing a plate and filling it with scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, and toast. She then grabbed some silverware and held the plate out for him. 

Harry walked over ant took the plate. He placed it down on the counter and looked at it both longingly and suspiciously. He really wanted to eat it, but knew better. He had no idea what was in it. All these people looked harmless, but he knew from last night that they weren't. Plus, they were strangers. That alone was reason not to trust them. They could be working for Voldemort for all he knew.

Paige noticed the look on the kid's face and was able to decipher what he was thinking. She'd probably think the same if she was him. So she reached over and snagged a sausage link. She immediately popped it into her mouth.

“Paige! Make your own plate!” Piper admonished.

Paige ignored her sister and smiled at her nephew. “Now, if it's poisoned, I'll die too.” 

Satisfied, Harry sat down at the counter and started digging into the food. He was really hungry. So much so that he was even willing to put off getting answers now that he knew the food was safe.

Cole and Phoebe both sat down on either side of their son and took plates as Piper offered them

Paige and Wyatt got their food and sat down at the table. 

Just then, Leo walked into the room. “Morning. 

“Morning. Harry, this is Leo. He's Piper's husband,” Phoebe said.

“Hi, Harry,” Leo said with a smile. 

“Hi,” Harry greeted back. He went back to his plate, which he cleaned off pretty quickly. Then he looked between Phoebe and Cole, as Wyatt told him they were the ones who could offer them answers. “Why am I here?”

“Uh, we're all gonna finish eating in the living room,” Piper said as she compiled her own breakfast. “Let's go.”

The others all took Piper's cue and got up and hurried out of the room.

“Uh, let's go sit at the table. It'll be better that way,” Phoebe said.

Cole nodded and got up to follow her.

Harry complied as well, only because he wanted answers. “Who are you? I know you're not muggles. Well, he's not anyway.”

“What's a muggle?” Phoebe asked.

“It's what his world calls mortals,” Cole answered.

“What are you?” Harry asked.

“I'm a witch, though not the same as people you know. It's a different kind of magic,” Phoebe said.

“There's a different kind of magic?” Harry asked surprised.

“I guess so. While the world you're from uses wands to harness, we won't. We have powers that we don't need anything to channel it with,” Phoebe explained. 

“Wandless magic. It's so rare where I come from,” Harry said before turning to Cole. “What about you?”

“I'm not a witch. I'm part human, part demon. My mother was a demon while my father was human,” Cole told his son.

Harry gasped. Did that mean that's what he was since he seemed to have the same power as this man. Was he a demon? “Are... Are demons bad?” 

“They don't have to be,” Phoebe said. She could tell that Harry had figured out that he was like Cole. It wasn't hard to deduce. He'd seen Cole use the same power he'd used.

“For a while, I was bad, but I chose not to be anymore,” Cole told him. He wanted Harry to see that it was his choice how he wanted to be. He wouldn't have him thinking he was destined for Evil.

Harry didn't want to contemplate what he might be anymore right now, so he changed the subject back to his original question. “Why am I here.”

Cole and Phoebe looked at each other, both trying to decide how to do this. Then Cole addressed his son. “We're just gonna say it because there is no way to ease you into it. Harry, we're your parents.”


	10. Chapter 10

Harry shifted his gaze back and forth between the two strangers, as if somehow expecting what they said to change if he stared long enough. It wasn't true. They weren't his parents. His parents were Lily and James Potter. These people were either liars or mental. He couldn't tell which at the moment.

“Harry,” Phoebe said hesitantly. He hadn't said a single word in several seconds and it was starting to worry here. She expected him to freak out. She did not expect silence.

Harry finally found his voice after the prompting. “No. My parents were Lily and James Potter.”

“I'm not going to tell you they're not. They loved you. That's what it means to be a parent. But we love you too and it's us you share blood with,” Phoebe explained.

Harry got up abruptly, knocking his chair down in the process. “No, you're barmy!”

Cole and Phoebe got up as well. “Look, we understand that this is hard for you to accept. Just let us explain,” Cole said.

“There's nothing to explain. You're either mad or lying!” Harry yelled as he backed away from them.

“Well, will you at least let us try? What do you have to lose by listening to us?” Phoebe asked.

Harry looked at her reluctantly for a minute. He didn't want to listen to this lunacy, but he supposed she had a point. Besides, what choice did he have. He had nowhere to go. Even if they let him leave, he was trapped in a foreign country with no way to get back at the moment. “Fine. Just stay away from me.”

“Thank you. This is hard for us, so I can only imagine how bad it is for you. Up until a couple days ago, we thought you were dead,” Cole said. 

“Dead? What do you mean?” Harry asked. 

“I don't know about the magic you're learning, but the kind we have can do some very unbelievable things. When I was pregnant with you, a demon used magic to take you from us. She literally transferred you from my body to hers,” Phoebe said.

“That's impossible,” Harry immediately said. Yes, he'd learned a great deal of things that he would've thought were crazy before he joined the Wizarding World, but surely this was over the top even for his world. 

“I know it's hard to believe, but it happened,” Cole said.

“So you're saying that Lily Potter is evil and stole me? No, I won't believe that. My mother was good. She sacrificed her life for me!” Harry defended.

“No, not her. We never even met her,” Phoebe told him. 

“It was a demon who wanted to use your powers to gain power. However, she couldn't handle your power, and when she went to use it, it became too much for her and killed her. You either became ejected in the process or used your powers to vacate her before you could die. You transferred yourself into Lily Potter,” Cole explained.

Phoebe turned to Cole. She'd noticed he'd glossed over a lot of details in his explanation, details that might have had Harry hating her when he heard them. Cole had protected her.

Harry looked at them both as though they'd lost their minds. “You're both bloody mental! You expect me to believe something like that is even possible?!”

Cole sighed. He supposed it did sound pretty crazy, even to someone who knew about Magic. Hell, he never would've guessed something like that was possible before the Elder, Sandra, had told them what happened. He had another tactic to convince his son though. “Can I show you something? I promise I won't hurt you.”

Harry gave a reluctant nod, but looked guarded.

Cole held his hand out and an energy ball appeared. “This is an energy ball. You have them too, right?”

Harry blanched slightly. He'd forgotten that he had the same power as this man. But it was just a coincidence, right? It had to be. His parents were James and Lily Potter. This was crazy. “No. It's a coincidence.”

“It's not, sweetheart. You have Cole's power and you probably have a lot more that you got both from him and from me. I know it's frightening, but we're telling you the truth,” Phoebe said as gently as she could. 

Harry couldn't take it anymore. He felt cornered and he wanted to get the bloody hell out of there. He needed to think, and he needed for someone to help him sort through this mess. He needed Hermione.

Cole and Phoebe watched in shock as seconds later their son disappeared in flames.

 

Xxxxxxxxxxx

 

Hermione had been walking down the hall towards her bedroom when she got the shock of her life and screamed in surprise. Flames appeared out of nowhere. They formed into a person and before she knew it, her best friend had appeared.

Harry stumbled back in shock and fell to the floor.

“Harry!” Hermione exclaimed, bending down to help him. As soon as she touched him, she felt him shake wildly. 

“H...Hermione? How did I get here?” Harry asked shaken. 

“You'd have to tell me! You appeared out of nowhere, in flames!” Hermione said in disbelief.

“I...I don't know.”

Hermone noticed a couple of faint bruises on Harry's face. “What happened to your face? You didn't have those when we left school?”

“I fell,” Harry lied.

Hermione studied him for moment before pulling him up. “Come on.”

Harry let her pull him down the hall and into a bedroom.

“You're lucky my parents are home. How did you get here?” Hermione asked.

“I don't know,” Harry said as he sat on the edge of the bed. “All I was thinking about was how I wanted to get away and how I knew you'd be able to help me sort everything out.”

“Sort what out? What happened?” Hermione asked.

“Last night, two people kidnapped me,” Harry said.

“What?! Hermione asked in horror.

“They didn't hurt me anything, but they've just told me something really crazy,” Harry said. He then told her the entire story that Phoebe and Cole told him.

“That's insane. Clearly these people a due a trip to Saint Mungos,” Hermione said.

“That's what I said. It's crazy. It can't be true,” Harry said. It sounded as though he was trying to convince himself.

“Why do you sound unsure?” Hermione asked. It was clear to her that she was missing something. Something had her best friend considering that this might be true. 

Harry sighed. “Th...There's something I've been keeping from you and Ron. Something happened at the Department of Mysteries that I didn't tell you about. When I went after Bellatrix and my crucio failed, I got really angry. I wanted some way to hurt her. After a second, this thing appeared in my hand. It was like a ball of light and electricity.”

Hermione sat down next to him. “Why didn't you tell us this?”

“I didn't know what it meant and I wasn't sure I wanted to know. It was frightening. It was something I'd never seen before. I was afraid it was something bad,” Harry told her.

“What does this have to do with what you were told this morning?” Hermione asked.

“The man who says he's my father, he can do it too. He did it last night and he showed it to me again before I came her,” Harry explained.

Hermione could definitely see why that would frighten her friend. He exhibited the same power as the man that said they were father and son. It was no different than being told he looked like the man. 

“And now I can somehow travel to other countries in flames. And... And I can see the future,” Harry said sounding very freaked out. This was too much for him, especially all at once. 

“Are you talking about your dreams about You Know Who?” Hermione asked.

Harry shook his head. “Right before we left Hogwarts, I had a dream that didn't involve Voldemort. It was the people claiming to be my parents. Hermione, I watched my dream play out right in front of me. Do you think it's true? They said I'd get more powers and it already happened! Do you think they're telling me the truth? No. No, they can't be. I'm James and Lily Potter's son. Everyone says I look like them.”

Hermione wordlessly got up and went to her desk. She picked up her potions book and then turned back to her friend. “There's a way to find out.”


	11. Chapter 11

Phoebe paced the living room as she went completely out of her mind. Her son had flamed out and they had absolutely no idea how to find him. He could be anywhere in the entire world. 

“Sweetie, calm down. We're going to find him,” Piper promised.

“How? We have no idea where he is? Paige can't sense him, and we have nothing we can use to scry for him,” Phoebe said frantic. 

Piper looked at Cole, who was visibly just as upset, but better at reigning it in. “Can't you track him somehow. I remember bounty hunters tracking you when you shimmered.”

“That's because they had the same power. I don't have the power to flame, so I can't track it. We pushed too hard. He felt backed into a corner and needed to get out. That's what triggered him to flame. He probably didn't even know he did it,” Cole said.

“Which means he's somewhere he doesn't now, scared out of his mind!”Phoebe cried.

“Maybe we can try the To Call a Lost Witch spell,” Paige suggested. 

Piper shook her head. “Maybe if there weren't eight other witches in this family besides Harry and ourselves.”

“She's right. It could summon any one of the kids,” Leo said.

“So we can't do anything?” Phoebe asked, on the verge of a breakdown.

Just then, Coop beamed into the room. He looked at his wife. “Hey. Have you been here all night? Why didn't you come home?”

“Uh, Coop, now's not the best time. Harry's missing,” Leo said.

“What do you mean missing?” Coop asked.

“It's a long story. We ended up bringing him here last night. We told him the truth today and he didn't take it well. He got scared and transported himself out,” Phoebe said.

“Wait, I thought you said you wouldn't be bringing him here so soon. What happened?” Coop asked. 

“Coop, we really don't have time to explain. We have to find him. He have to figure out where he could've gone,” Piper said.

“Well, if he didn't want to be here, he probably went home,” Coop said.

“I seriously doubt that,” Paige said, remembering the sight of her nephew before she and Wyatt healed most of his injuries.

“There's no reason to even believe he had a destination in mind. It's doubtful he can control this power. He could've ended up somewhere random,” Leo said. 

An idea suddenly occurred to Phoebe and she looked at Cole with fear. “You don't think he could've ended up in the Underworld, do you?”

Cole shook his head. “No, not without some kind of control. The Underworld exists on a different plane so to speak. That's why Leo could never hear when you called if he was down there. Harry wouldn't be able to get off this plane without trying to do so. 

“What about a summoning spell?” Coop asked.

“We just discussed that. It won't work,” Piper said. 

“Wait, the To Call a Lost Witch spell won't work, but that doesn't mean a new spell won't. We write a new spell and use Cole's blood,” Paige said.

“That's a good idea,” Piper said.

“I'm on it,” Phoebe said before promptly leaving the room to write her spell.

 

Xxxxxxxxxxx

 

Harry watched anxiously as Hermione stirred the potion they were making. The potion was supposed to name his parents. He would know soon whether or not what he was told was true or not. “How much longer will it take?”

“It shouldn't be long. The potion will turn blue and then we'll add a couple of drops of your blood. Then it will say your name and then the names of your parents,” Hermione said.

Harry watched as the potion soon turned blue. 

“Alright, it's ready,” Hermione said before handing her friend a knife that was sitting on her desk next to the potion.

Harry took the knife and started at it, making no move to cut himself.

“Harry?”

“Maybe we don't have to do this. I mean, they're lying. They have to be,” Harry said.

“You're not sure you want to know,” Hermione guessed.

“Everything will change. Right now, I can pretend that it's a lie. Once I get the results of this potion, I can't. I can't forget what it tells me. Maybe I should just let it go. I'll just go on as I have,” Harry said. It seemed for the best because he didn't know how he'd handle it if he found out he wasn't who he thought he was.

“But you can't, Harry. You won't be able to wake up and be content with not knowing. I know that just looking at the turmoil on your face now. You will wonder every second of the day, and it will drive you mad until you get the answer. It will be worse than the answer itself. You're right, you can't forget once you know, but at least you will now and you can move on,” Hermione said. 

Harry sighed and brought the knife to his hand, slicing it down the middle. Hermione was right. Not knowing would eat him alive. Plus, his supposed parents weren't going to just leave him alone. They would find him and continue to claim he was there son. He had to know. 

Harry held his hand over the potion and squeezed it shut, causing blood to drip from his hand. He watched as his blood swirled in the potion and began to form his name in red letters.

Harry James Potter

Parents: Coleridge Benjamin Turner, Phoebe Halliwell 

Harry went completely still, unable to do anything but read the results over and over again. It was true. His parents weren't Lily and James Potter. He wasn't a Potter. Everything he ever knew had just been taken from him. He didn't even know how to respond.

“Merlin's Beard, Harry. You're the son of a Charmed One,” Hermione said in disbelief. She knew about Wiccan Magic and the Charmed Ones. They weren't taught at Hogwarts, mainly because History of Magic was taught by a ghost and therefor out of date, but she had several books on various types of Magic.

Harry didn't even comprehend what his friend had said. He was too busy reeling from his life changing so drastically. All his life, he wondered what life would be like if his parents were alive, but when he thought about it, he pictured Lily and Jame, even when he didn't know what they looked like, it was people with their names. Now he had strangers he didn't know say they were his parents, and it was true. How did he deal with that. 

Hermione took her friend by the hand and led him to the bed. She sat them both down on the edge. “I'm sorry, Harry. I know this is really frightening to you.”

“T...The only thing in my life that was always true, that no one could take away, was that I was Harry James Potter, son of James and Lily Potter. For ten years, it was all I had. Now in moments, it's gone. The one thing that I thought would never change has,” Harry said with a shudder. It wasn't fair. Why did things like this, bad or shocking things, always seem to happen to him. It was like everyone banded together to rock his life over and over again.”

“This is a lot to put on you, especially so soon after Sirius' death, but, Harry, there is a good thing about it. You have a family. You've always wanted that,” Hermione said.

“Not like this. I wanted my parents. I wanted Lily and James, not strangers,” Harry said. He didn't know at all how to deal with these people. Yes, they were his parents and they seemed to care for him, but he didn't know them.

“Harry, even if it had been Lily and James, somehow back from the dead, who came to you, they'd be strangers too,” Hermione reminded him.

“No, it's different. I mean, yeah, I didn't know them, but I've heard about them since I started Hogwarts. I knew they were my parents,” Harry said.

“And these people were just sprung on you. I understand, but you could still be a family with them. Maybe it will be harder, but you can still have what you've always wanted.

Before Harry had the chance to respond, he disappeared in white lights.


	12. Chapter 12

The next thing Harry knew, he was no longer in Hermione's bedroom, but a cluttered attic where his... parents and the others he'd met earlier, as well as a man he'd yet to meet, were waiting. Harry immediately backed away. He was so overwhelmed right now, both with the changes that kept happening and with suddenly appearing in different places.

Phoebe instinctively went to go to her son, but Cole lightly took a hold of her arm to stop her. 

Coop fumed as he saw Cole with his hands on his wife. He had no right laying a single hand on her for any reason. “Hey, get your...”

Paige, who was right next to him, elbowed him in the side. She was normally all for someone lashing out at Cole, but even she understood that now was not the best time. Harry was already visibly freaked out by what was happening. The last thing they needed was to add conflict to that. 

Cole looked at his son. “Hey. We're sorry for scaring you by bringing you back here so abruptly. We were just worried. We didn't know where you were or if you were safe.

“It was you? I didn't do it?” Harry asked. 

“No, it was us. We didn't have any way to find you,” Phoebe said. 

“Okay, I think the rest of us should go downstairs,” Piper said.

Paige and Leo both nodded and followed her.

Coop seemed a bit hesitant. “Phoebe...”

“We need some time,” Phoebe said quietly. She didn't like kicking him out, but Harry was reallyu freaked out and didn't need so many people around right now. Her and Cole needed to handle this alone.

Coop nodded and reluctantly followed the others out of the room.

Phoebe turned back to Harry. “Hi. We didn't mean to scare you so much earlier.”

“You told me everything I knew about my family was a lie. How did you think I would take it?” Harry asked a bit snidely. 

Cole sighed. “There was no easy way for us to tell you. I know you don't believe us, but what we've said...”

“I believe you now,” Harry interrupted.

“Really?” Phoebe asked. 

Harry nodded. “When I did whatever I did to leave, I ended up at a friend's house. She made a potion that tells you who your parents are.”

Phoebe turned to Cole. “A potion can do that?”

Cole shrugged. “Apparently.”

Phoebe turned back to Harry. “Do you want to sit? I'm sure you're rally overwhelmed. It might help to sit down.”

“I'm fine here,” Harry said, not wanting to move any closer to them.

“Please, don't be afraid of us. We'd never hurt you,” Phoebe promised. It was hard for not to tell that her son was going out of his way not be within at least ten feet of them.

“No, never,” Cole agreed.

“Look, you may be my... my parents, but I don't know you, or this place you keep bringing me to,” Harry said.

“We understand. That's why it was never the plan to bring you here, at least not right away. We wanted you to meet us and then get to know us at your house. But after what we walked in on, we had no choice but to take you out of there, and I'm sorry, but we can't ever allow you back there,” Cole said in gentle, yet firm tone. The y would give Harry as much space as he needed, but they wouldn't let him back with those people. His safety was non-negotiable.   
Harry flinched involuntarily. “For all you know, I deserved it.”

“That's not true,” Phoebe said immediately. 

“No one deserves that. I don't care what you may have done. That piece of trash had no right to lay a hand on you,” Cole told him. He hated that his son could even think like that, though he wasn't totally surprised. He knew a lot of abused kids grew up believing it was their fault.

For a second, Harry found himself wondering how his life would've been different if he'd grown up here. His life probably would've been much different than it was with the Dudley's. Maybe he would've been loved. They seemed to really care about him now. But his curiosity didn't mean that he was happy about the situation or that he was going to run into their arms. “So you're saying that I have no choice but to stay here?”

“Yes. I'm sorry, honey, but we can't let you go back there,” Phoebe said. She didn't like the way things were. It felt like she and Cole were more Harry's kidnappers than his parents, and she knew it must feel like that to Harry too. This was the entire reason they'd decided to take things slow. Unfortunately, it became blatantly obvious that that wasn't possible.

Harry felt trapped. He didn't want to stay with strangers, even if they were his parents, but what choice did he have? His only option would be to contact the Headmaster, someone he didn't trust anymore, and ask for him, but he had no owl to use to write to him. Also, he'd send Harry back to the Dursleys, and he wasn't really up for that. He could leave on his own, but he didn't know how to control that power and it frankly frightened him anyway. Plus, his newfound parents had already proven they could bring him back if they wanted.

“It's not gonna be so bad, you know? We love you so much. Let us show you that,” Phoebe pleaded. 

“I don't know you,” Harry stated. 

“We know, but we can all get to know each other, and we promise to do our best not push you too hard. We just want a chance to give you a good life. You deserve so much better than what you've been given,” Cole said.

“You don't know that,” Harry said quietly. He didn't feel like he deserved better. Bad things happened to people when he was around them. His parents. Lily and James dying was proof of that, as was Sirius dying. And that was all before you even took into account that he was apparently part demon. Phoebe and Cole had tried to say that it didn't mean he was evil, but from the other things they said, he deduced that most demons were.

Phoebe sighed sadly. It was clear from that statement that her son had very low self-esteem, which wasn't really surprising since he was abused. Abused kids grew up believing they weren't worth anything. “We do, and we plan to prove it. Please let us.”

“It's not as if you're giving me much choice,” Harry said a bit bitterly. “You're my parents and you'll be able to prove it, so you could do pretty much whatever you want, can't you? So fine, but don't expect me to start calling you Mum and Dad.”

Phoebe couldn't help but be a little hurt by her son's words and the tone with which he said them, but she understood. She couldn't expect him to jump for joy. “We don't. Are names are fine until you're ready for something else.”

“You took me away from a friend of mine and she's probably really worried. Will you let me make sure she knows that I'm alright?” Harry asked. He could only imagine how Hermione reacted to disappearing like that. She had to be extremely worried.

“Yeah, of course. Do you know her number?” Phoebe asked.

Harry shook his head. “We didn't call each other. We would just write.”

“How about an address? I can take you to here if I know where I'm, going,” Cole said as he stepped closer and held his hand out for the boy.

Harry nodded and reluctantly took the man's hand.

 

Xxxxxxxxxxx

 

To say Hermione was freaking out would be an understatement. She was pacing her room frantically waiting to see if Harry might show back up. She hoped so. She hoped he'd done it himself, similarly to how he arrived, instead of someone having actually took him away. All she knew was that if she didn't show up soon, she was going to have to owl Professor Dumbledore.

“Hermione,” a voice called from behind her. 

Hermione whipped her head around and came face to face with Her best friend and a man she'd never met. She immediately ran to her best friend and hugged him. “Don't do that again, Harry! I was so afraid for you!”

“Sorry. Though it wasn't actually me,” Harry said as he hugged her back.

“It was our fault,” Cole said from next to Harry, causing the two teens to break apart and look at him. “We didn't know where he went and we thought it was best to get him back as soon as possible. I apologize for worrying you.”

“Are you Harry's father?” Hermione asked the man.

“Yes, I am. My name's Cole turner,” Cole said as he stuck his hand out.

Hermione shook the man's hand. “Hermione. Harry and I go to school together.”

“Thank you for helping him. He said you made a potion for him,” Cole said.

Hermione nodded. “You're taking him back to live with you, aren't you?”

“Yes. We believe he's better off with us,” Cole said. He wouldn't go further than that. He didn't know how much this girl knew about the way his son was treated by his family, probably not much, and he didn't want to betray his son's secrets to his friends. 

“You're probably right,” Hermione said She didn't even know this man or any of Harry's other family and she thought he was better off. She knew the Dursley's didn't treat him right. Hopefully these people would.

Harry sent her a shocked and irritated look. 

“Sorry, Harry, but it's what I believe. You shouldn't be back with the Dursley's. I may not know much, but I know they don't appreciate you. You don't belong with them,” Hermione said.

Harry nodded after a second. About the only good thing to come out of this was that he didn't have to go back to the Dursley's. In fact, they weren't even related to him. That was actually a pleasant thought. He didn't even have to call them his relatives anymore because they weren't. He'd found a silver lining in this mess. 

“Before you go, I want to give you my number. He can call me, right?” Hermione asked, turning her attention to her friend's father.

“Of course. He can call anytime he wants. We could even arrange for you to come visit from time to time,” Cole said. He in no way planned to keep Harry from seeing and talking to his friends, especially when this girl seemed like a very decent and true friend. Those didn't come around often. 

“That would be brilliant!” Hermione said before going to her desk. She grabbed a paper and pen and jotted down her number. Then she went back to Harry and handed him the paper. “I know this is all happening so fast, Harry, but try to give your family a chance. I know how much you've longed for people that care.

Harry nodded and pocketed the piece of paper. 

Cole placed a hand on Harry's shoulder. “It was nice meeting you, Hermione,” he said before shimmering away. 

 

Xxxxxxxxxxx

 

Dumbledore was sitting in his office in deep thought. He was not having the best day. Petunia Dursley had sent him a letter using Harry's owl asking him to come immediately. He'd of course wasted no time. Petunia had never set him a letter before, not surprising as she hated everything to do with Magic, so he knew it had to be bad. And he was right. When he arrived, Petunia had told him that Harry had been kidnapped. She'd said a couple had just barged in and took them.

Dumbledore had been a bit suspicious of Petunia's story. For one, he wouldn't have thought she'd care enough to even write to tell him Harry had been taken. She simply wouldn't be bothered about it. In fact, she'd probably be happy about it. For another, she just seemed to be leaving huge chunks of the story out. Plus her and her husband kept sharing suspicious looks.

It was after Dumbledore looked into their memories that he understood why Petunia wrote to him. That couple had walked in on Vernon Dursley abusing Harry. The man had become angry and almost killed Vernon Dursley. He'd also threatened to come back and finish the job. That was why they wrote to him.

Dumbledore would admit that she wasn't overly shocked that the Dursley's were abusing Harry. He never knew for sure that it was happening, but he suspected. He knew at the very least that they neglected him. He knew that would happen when he left the boy there. Now, most would call him heartless for doing such a thing, but it was necessary. He needed Harry to grow up a certain way so that he'd do what needed to be done when it came time to fight Voldemort.

Dumbledore's thoughts were interrupted when he heard a knock at the door. “Come in.”

A second later, Minerva McGonagal and Severus Snape walked in. “You wanted to see us, Albus,” Minerva asked.

“Yes, we have a problem. Please shut the door,” Dumbledore said.

Severus did so. 

“I was called to Privet drive today,” Dumbledore said, earning a concerned look from Minerva and a sneer from Severus. “Harry has been kidnapped.”

“What?! How is that possible? You have wards set up to protect him,” Minerva said.

“The wards only protect him against someone who intends to harm him on the spot. It does nothing against kidnappers,” Albus said. Actually, the wards weren't as strong as he led people to believe. He did have wards up, but they weren't as strong as he led people to believe, certainly not blood wards. Such wards wouldn't even work for Harry with the Dursleys. 

“Who did this? Death eaters?” Minerva asked.

“There's been no talk of an attack on Potter's home. The Dark Lord has barely even mentioned him in the last few meetings,” Severus said.

“No, I don't believe it's death eaters. Harry's family was left alive,” Dumbledore said. If Death eaters had attacked Harry, they would've killed his muggle family, not being able to pass up the opportunity to kill muggles. 

“Then who?” Minerva asked. 

“I'm not sure yet, but one of them is a demon. I saw his power in Petunia's memories,” Dumbledore said.

“Merlin's beard! We must find him! Shall we call an Order meeting?” Minerva asked.

“No, I don't want to start a panic just yet. We look discreetly for the time being. Perhaps we can send wiccan witches to find the demon. It is their job after all,” Dumbledore said. 

“Why not just let the Trace find the boy. Surely he'll use Magic the first chance he has,” Severus said.

“If he had his wand, I'd agree, but it was left behind with the rest of his things,” Dumbledore said.

“Idiot! How stupid must you be to not have your wand on you at all times?” Severus snarled.

“Enough, Severus. There is no time for your grudges. We must find the boy,” Dumbledore said.

Minerva nodded. “I know a couple of wiccans I can ask for help.”

“Good. Do so right away,” Dumbledore said

Minerva and Severus both nodded and left the room.


	13. Chapter 13

Phoebe walked downstairs the next morning and found Cole folding the blankets and sheets he'd used to sleep on the couch the night before. “Morning. Is Harry up yet?”

“Well, if he is, he hasn't come down yet,” Cole said. 

Phoebe nodded. “So Harry doesn't have any of his things here. We're going to have to head back to that house to get them.”

“I already went there last night. The place was completely deserted and there was nothing in it, except for furniture. No clothes or anything,” Cole said.

“They took his things?!” Phoebe asked angrily. It was bad enough that those animals had harmed their son, but now they'd apparently stolen everything he owned.

Cole nodded. “I'm not surprised that they'd disappear. We did promise retribution, but I don't know why they'd take his stuff. Maybe out of spite.”

“Well, we're going to have to take him shopping then. He's going to need clothes and furniture for his room,” Phoebe said.

“Uh, I think we should talk somewhere else,” Cole said before holding out his hand for her. 

“Why?” Phoebe asked.

“Because there's something we need to discuss and I see the conversation turning hostile to say the least. I don't think either of us wants our son to walk in on that,” Cole said.

Phoebe narrowed her eyes, but took his hand. The next thing she knew, they'd shimmered to the mausoleum, the one they'd gone to all the time after she first found out he was a demon. “Okay, what is it?”

“Look, neither of us knew things were going to happen like this. Our plan was to ease ourselves into life before there was any talk of him living with either of us, but that's now out the window and we have to figure out how we're going to handle his living arrangements. The three of us can't stay at the Manor forever. I'm sure Piper and Leo would like their kids back home at some point,” Cole said. 

“Yes, I know. He'll come home with me within the next few days,” Phoebe said.

“I don't think that's a good idea,” Cole said.

Phoebe glared at him. “Don't even think you're going to do this, Cole! My son is coming home with me!” She wasn't going to keep Cole away, but she wanted Harry to live with her for the most part. She wouldn't consider anything else.

Cole returned the glare. “Okay, first of all, he's my son too. Don't forget that. Second, maybe you wanna think about what's best for him right now!”

Phoebe laughed, though there was no trace of humor in it. “Okay, so you're saying that my son isn't better off with me? You hate me so much that you think I'm a bad mother?!”

“I didn't say that! Regardless of how I may feel about you personally, I know you're a good mother. Would you listen to what I have to say instead of jumping to conclusions?” Cole asked heatedly.

Phoebe continued to glare, but remained silent. 

“Harry has known the truth for less than a day. He's still reeling from that. He's surrounded by strangers, which has him even more overwhelmed. Plus, he's been abused,” Cole said. The last part was said quietly with a cringe. He hated saying those words. His child had spent probably years being tormented by people who were meant to love him, all because some asshole Elders decided to judge him before he was even capable of speaking. “Your house is filled with even more people he doesn't know. I just don't think it's the best idea to crowd him right now.”

“He's going to have to get to know them, Cole. They're his family too,” Phoebe argued. 

“I understand that, but maybe we could do it little by little. Tell him about them, but don't them on him right away. Then when he decides he's comfortable enough, let him meet and get used to them little by little,” Cole said.

“And in the meantime he lives with you? You don't even have a place to live,” Phoebe pointed out.

“I saw a place I liked the other day. I can put an offer down. I was never declared dead, so the bank account I had set up before my vanquish should still be there. It would just be for a few weeks, Phoebe. Then we can work out some kind of arrangement, maybe switch off every week or so, depending on what Harry wants,” Cole said.

Phoebe hated this idea. She wanted her son to live with her. But when she finally calmed down enough to hear Cole out, she understood his concerns, and grudgingly, she had to admit he was right. It wasn't fair to push so many people at their son just yet. He was barely able to deal with the fact that he had new parents, springing a stepfather and sisters on him that he'd be living with on top of it so soon was a bit much. “I'd have access to him whenever I want, right?”

“Absolutely,” Cole agreed. 

“Okay,” Phoebe said after a second. 

 

Xxxxxxxxxxx

 

Harry walked downstairs towards the kitchen. He'd hibernated in Wyatt's room as long as he could. He was really hungry, and his stomach finally won out. 

Harry stood in the doorway and watched one the woman he met last night, Piper, her believed, finish breakfast.

Piper had just finished flipping the pancakes onto a plate and turned to put them on the counter. She soon noticed her nephew in the the doorway. She immediately smiled at him. “Hi. You can come in. Breakfast is ready.”

Harry tentatively walked over and sat down at the counter. Q

“You like pancakes?” Piper asked before grabbing a plate and putting three pancakes on it for her nephew. She then grabbed some silver wear and the syrup before putting it all in front of her nephew.

Harry nodded and started digging in. “These are really good.”

“Thank you. Do yourself a favor, only ever eat homemade food that I make. Only me and my son, Chris, got the cooking gene in this family,” Piper said. 

Harry smiled slightly. “How are we related?”

“Phoebe's my sister. I'm your aunt,” Piper told him.

Harry nodded. He'd figured it had to be something like that. “Where is everyone?”

“Well, I guess still asleep. Except for Cole. He wasn't on the couch, so I'm not sure where he is,” Piper said. 

“He doesn't have a bedroom?” Harry asked confused.   
\  
“Uh, no. He doesn't actually live here. The only ones who live here now are me, Leo, and our kids. Though, everyone else visits frequently,” Piper said. 

Harry blinked a couple of times. He supposed it made sense that not everyone lived in the same house. That was a bit unrealistic. He just assumed since he was brought here that this was where his parents at least lived. “If Cole and Phoebe don't live here, why wasn't I brought to their house instead?”

Piper cringed. That was a complicated question, and not one meant for her to answer. “I'm going to let them tell you that. Would you like something to drink, maybe some orange juice.

Harry knew he was being put off, but nodded anyway.

Piper grabbed a glass from the cabinet and then went to the fridge and grabbed the juice. She poured the glass halfway and brought it over to Harry.

“Thank you,” Harry said before taking the glass. 

Just then, Cole and Phoebe shimmered into the kitchen. 

“Where have you two been?” Piper wondered. She knew Cole had left, but she thought Phoebe was still sleeping. 

“Uh, we just had some things to figure out,” Phoebe said before turning to her son. “Hi, Harry. Morning.”

“Morning,” Harry said quietly.

“Breakfast?” Piper asked them.

They both nodded and grabbed themselves a plate before sitting next their won at the counter.

“What happens now?” Harry suddenly asked after a few seconds. 

“Uh, well, I was thinking we could go shopping today. You're going to need some clothes and stuff for your room,” Phoebe said. 

“I have things at the Dursley's,” Harry said.

“Well, actually, you don't. I went back last night. They've moved out and taken everything with them,” Cole said gently. 

Harry's eyes widened. “They took my things! My wand?! Why? They hate my things. What about Hedwig?!” he asked frantically.

As if on cue, a snowy white owl flew through the kitchen window causing everyone but Harry to yelp in shock.

“Hedwig!” Harry said excitedly as the bird came and landed on his shoulder. “Thank Merlin they let you go at least!

“You have an owl?” Piper asked in shock.

Harry nodded. 

“She's beautiful. I've never seen an owl like this,” Phoebe said. 

“How do you even have an owl as a pet? I've never heard of that,” Piper said.

“In my world, their the most common pet. Witches and Wizards use them for mail. Their the most common way of communicating with someone far away. There's also the floo though,” Harry said.

“The what?” Phoebe asked.

While Piper asked, “What about a phone?”

“They don't have telephones in the Wizarding World. Purebloods don't even know what one is or how to use them,” Harry said. He remembered Ron the one time he'd used the phone to call him. He'd shouted the whole time, believing he couldn't possibly be heard unless he was yelling. 

“Are you serious?” Piper asked in disbelief.

Harry nodded. “The Wizarding World is rather outdated.”

“So how did your owl find you?” Cole wondered. 

“Owls are pretty smart. They don't even need an address. I'm not sure how they do it, but somehow they can just find people,” Harry said.

“So what do you think about going shopping?” Phoebe asked her son. 

Harry became uncomfortable. “I...I don't have access to any money here.”

“You don't need money. We don't expect you to pay for anything. It's our job to pay for the things you need,” Cole said. He didn't like that it would even occur to Harry that he'd have to pay for his own things. Kids should never think that. 

Harry looked between them surprised for a minute. Aside from gifts, no one had offered to pay for his things before. The Dursley's rarely paid for him, and they always made him regret it when they did have to. 

“So how about we go in about an hour or so. We should head out early since it'll probably take up a good portion of the day,” Phoebe said.

“Alright. Would it be alright if I had a shower?” Harry asked.

“Yeah, of course. And I'll grab you some of Chris' clothes for you to wear while you're doing that,” Piper said.

Cole stood up. “Come on, I'll show you where the towels are and how to work the shower.”

Harry got up, causing Hedwig to fly off his shoulder and land over on the window sill, and followed him out of the room. 

Piper waited until they were out of the room to speak to her sister. “You know you're going to have to tell him you and Cole are divorced, and that he has a stepfather and sisters, right?”

“Yeah, I know. We're going to tell him tonight that we're divorced, and that he'll be living just with Cole for a little while,” Phoebe said.

Piper raised an eyebrow in surprise. She never thought her sister would agree to something like that. She wondered if Phoebe and Cole had come to blows when he suggested it, because she was sure he had. “Wow. You agreed to that?”

“I don't like it, but Cole pointed out that he's overwhelmed enough without shoving even more strangers down his throat. We want to take things slow with him,” Phoebe said. 

“Yeah, that's probably for the best. I think you're all going to have acclimate to this situation. On that note, you're gonna have to go home and fill your husband in soon. I doubt he was happy you stayed her again last night,” Piper said.

Phoebe shook her head. “He's having a hard time dealing with all this, which I don't blame him for. He did not sign up for my ex-husband and son coming back from the dead. I feel bad. I know it must be hard for him to not have me around, and worse, to know that I'm with my ex-husband nearly every second. It'll probably only get worse knowing that I'll be going to Cole's constantly to see Harry. But I have to think about my son first. My kids have to come before anything else.”

“I definitely understand that. Coop probably just needs time to figure this all out himself. I mean, he just learned that he has a stepson. I'm sure he just has no idea what his role in all this is,” Piper said. She hoped that was it anyway. She hoped that Coop figured out a way to deal with both Harry and Cole in his life, because if couldn't deal with it, he would lose Phoebe. 

“I'm going to head home after I get done shopping with Harry. I'll talk to Coop then. Uh, Cole's hoping to get a place today. Hopefully we'll all be out of your hair either today or the next day,” Phoebe said.

“You know you're welcome as long as you need,” Piper said.

“Thanks. I'm going to go get those clothes from the boys' room for Harry,” Phoebe said before getting up and leaving the room.


	14. Chapter 14

After taking Harry shopping and then taking him back to the Manor, Phoebe went home to see her husband and other children. She missed her children very much and she really did need to talk to Coop about everything. 

Phoebe walked in through the front door and found her husband seated in the living room. “Hey.”

“Hey. Long time no see,” Coop said in a tone that made it clear he was not happy. 

“Where are the girls?” Phoebe asked. 

“Out back. You here to stay?” Coop asked. 

“No, I'm going to spend one more night at Piper's,” Phoebe said.

Coop sighed unhappily.

“Look, Coop, I know this isn't the best situation. I know that I'm putting a lot on you right now. I'm not doing that on purpose. There's just a lot going on,” Phoebe said. 

“That you don't want to include me in,” Coop said. 

“No, it's not like that! I am just trying to handle this the best way possible so that I don't damage my son any more than he already is,” Phoebe said. 

“What about the rest of us? What about our girls?!” Coop asked angrily.

“Okay, don't go there!” Phoebe yelled back. She was trying to understand where her husband was coming from, but she wasn't going to stand there and listen to him claim she was hurting their children. He did not get to use them that way. “The girls are fine. I have spoken to them every day and they have been fine. This is about you. I'm sorry that this is hurting you, but he's my son. He has to come first!”

“Right. So I'm just supposed to be okay with the fact that my wife has been gone for two days, spending all her time with her ex-husband and the son no one knew still existed?” Coop asked as he stood up from the couch.

Phoebe sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “What do you want me to do, Coop? You want me to ignore the boy that I have loved and longed to be with from the moment I lost him? The child I thought I was responsible for killing? Or is it that you want me to tell him that he has to get over the shock of finding out that everything he knew about himself is untrue, just because he's inconveniencing you? I'm not going to do that. I'm sorry that this is hurting you, but my concern has to be with my child. He's going through hell. He has to deal with a whole bunch of strangers and the realization that he is not who he thought he was. That's on top of having just been removed from an abusive home.”

Coop looked surprised. That was something he hadn't known. He knew there must have been a reason for Phoebe to deviate from her original plan, but he didn't know it was something like that. “He was abused?”

“Yeah. Cole and I found him on the floor bloody while a man at least three times his size was beating him,” Phoebe said. She could barely keep the tears from her eyes as she recalled the events. “So it's even more complicated than we originally thought.

“Alright, I'm sorry. I just want you to come home. You can't stay at Piper's forever,” Coop said.

“And I told you it would only be for one more day. Cole put an offer down on a place today and it was accepted,” Phoebe said. Cole had been at the Manor when she returned with Harry and he told her he was successful. “Harry's going to stay with him for a little while.”

“Really? I thought you wanted him to live with us,” Coop said.

“I do, but we think it's best for him to just live with Cole for now. That way we're not forcing a bunch of strangers on him all at once. I'm going to tell him about you and the girls, but we think it's best that he gets to know you gradually before he comes to stay with us,” Phoebe explained. 

“So then you'll be going over to his place all the time,” Coop said. He wasn't sure his feelings on this arrangement. One one hand, he was kind of for this kid living with Cole. So much was happening so fast. He wasn't even sure how he felt about this kid, plus he didn't like the idea that Cole Turner could show up at his house at any moment, but he also didn't like the idea of his wife disappearing to his house every day.

Phoebe sighed. “Coop, Cole is going to be a part of my life. Neither of us have a choice in that. I love you. I don't know why you can't trust that.”

“Look, I just don't like him being around. I'm sure he's still in love with you,” Coop said. He also wasn't sure Phoebe didn't still love him. He knew all about the men Phoebe loved. She had been the most passionate about Cole, looking past even the fact that he was a demon. Hell, she married him and then stayed with him when she found out he was evil again. Plus, she held onto that picture he found all these years. God, Coop wished he'd never found that picture. If he never had, Phoebe wouldn't have had that premonition and none of this would be happening. 

“Okay, I seriously disagree, but even if was, I'm not in love with him. But again, he is a part of my life. We have a child. That's not going to go away. I need you to try to accept it and not get upset every time I'm around him,” Phoebe said. 

“Alright,” Coop said after a minute. 

“Thank you,”Phoebe said before pulling him into a tight hug.

 

Xxxxxxxxxxx

 

Harry was sitting at table in the dining room writing a letter to Ron. Hermione knew everything that was going on, but he'd had yet to explain it to his other best friend. He could only imagine Ron's surprise when he read it

Harry was about halfway through the letter when he heard footsteps. He looked up to see Phoebe and Cole come towards him.

“Hey. Can we talk to you for a minute?” Phoebe asked.

Harry nodded and put the letter aside.

Phoebe and Cole walked over and sat across from their son. “You writing a letter?” Phoebe asked.

“Yeah, to a friend of mine. He and his family have been good to me. If they don't know I'm gone already, they will soon and I don't want them to worry,” Harry said.

“Sending a letter sounds like a good idea then. “So there are some things we have to tell you. For one, we don't actually live here.”

Harry nodded. “Piper told me that. Where do you live? And why was I brought here instead of there?”

“Well, actually, Cole and I have to separate places. We don't live together anymore. He lives by himself and I live with my husband,” Phoebe said.

“You're divorced?” Harry asked surprised. 

“We are. We had some problems and we decided it was best to end things,” Cole said. It was of course far more complicated than that, but Harry did not need to know their ugly and bloody history right now.

Harry wasn't sure how to feel about this. It wasn't that he cared they were divorced. He barely knew them, so he had no reason to want them together or anything. It just meant this situation was even more complicated. Who would he live with if his parents didn't live together? And what about this man Phoebe said she was married to? Was he going to want Harry around? What would he do if he didn't?

“It doesn't really mean much for you. Cole and I both love you. This just means you'll have two different homes,” Phoebe said.

Harry nodded. “Which one of you will I live with?”

“For now, with Cole. I really want you to live with me, but we don't want to overwhelm you. I live with my husband and our three kids,” Phoebe said.

Harry's mouth dropped open in shock. “I...I have siblings?” He never even considered that possibility. He probably should've, especially now knowing that Phoebe was remarried. It had just never occurred to him. 

“Yeah, three sisters. PJ, which is short for Prudence Johanna, Parker, and Peyton,” Phoebe said.

Harry began to breath heavily as the overwhelming feeling returned. Actually, he should say as it got worse, since it never really went away. Everything was just happening so fast. First, he found out that he wasn't who he thought he was. That his parents weren't who he thought they were. Then he was forced to stay with strangers who were actually his parents. There was also the strange powers that he had and learning that he he was part demon. Now he found out he had siblings. He'd always wanted siblings. He'd envied Ron for having so many. But it was just too much all at once. He didn't know how to deal with this. It was too much. And that was coming from someone who'd faced Voldemort three times, not even counting when he was a baby. 

Phoebe could tell he was getting upset and immediately tried to reassure him. “Harry, listen, there is no pressure. We know how freaky all this is for you. That's why we decided to take this slow. You can stay with your father while you get to know us. Once you're comfortable enough, we'll talk about getting to know the rest of the family. We will follow your pace.”

“I want to be alone,” Harry said before bolting from the room, unable to take anymore.

“Maybe I should've waited,” Phoebe said. She'd pushed him too far. She should've waited a couple of days until Harry was a little more over the shock. 

Cole shook his head. “No. If you waited any longer, he probably would've been angry that he wasn't told sooner. He just needs some time to process things.”

“Maybe. I'm gonna go get some air,” Phoebe said before getting up and leaving the room.


	15. Chapter 15

Harry was sitting in the living room watching a movie on television. There was nothing else for him to really do at the moment, as he didn't even have any of his text books, so he welcomed it when Piper turned the TV on for him. 

Harry was soon interrupted when he heard the door. Soon, the woman he remembered meeting a couple of days ago came in. He couldn't remember her name.”

“Hi,” she said. 

“Hello. I don't remember your name,” Harry said before muting the movie he was watching. 

“That's okay. You've met a bunch of knew people recently. I'm Paige,” she said before walking over and joining him on the couch. “What are you watching.”

Harry shrugged. “Not sure. Um, you're related to me as well, yeah?”

“Yep. Phoebe's my sister,” Paige said.

“So you're my aunt too then. Bloody hell, it seems I have a big family,” Harry said. It was almost funny because he'd always wished he had a family. He'd only ever had the Dursleys, and he hardly call them family. He always wished there was more. Now that that wish had come true, it was terribly overwhelming. He supposed this was an example of needing to be careful what you wished for.

Paige nodded. “It's pretty scary isn't it. One minute, it's pretty much just you and the next there are all these people around that you don't know and they want to be a part of your life. I know how you feel.”

Harry snorted, making it clear he didn't believe her. How could anyone understand. He had apparently been ejected from his birth mother and transported into someone else's body. Who in the world could actually say they'd been through that. 

“I do. I didn't grow up with my sisters. I didn't know them until I was an adult. I was adopted,” Paige said. She knew it wasn't completely the same, but she did understand what it was like to find out that your parents weren't your biological parents and she knew what it felt like to get used to a new family. 

“Really?” Harry asked surprised.

Paige nodded. “I was about ten or eleven when I found out I was adopted. It freaked me out. I felt like my whole life had been turned upside down. I was scared that my parents would somehow stop loving me because I wasn't really theirs and I was hurt that my biological parents gave me up. I wondered if I did something wrong.” This was something she never even told her sisters. By the time she met them, she had adjusted to the fact that she was adopted and had no problems with it, but as a child, it was hard. 

“It got better, right?” Harry asked. 

“Yeah. After a lot of conversations with my parents, I realized they loved me just the same as if I was their blood. I also came to realize that sometimes parents have to give their kids up to give them a better life. It doesn't mean it was that easy when I met my sisters though. They were strangers to me and I don't know what place I had in their lives. It didn't help that I knew nothing about Magic at the time either. I was thrust into a world I didn't understand,” Paige explained. 

Harry had to admit that if anyone could understand what he went through, it was Paige. She knew what it was like to find out she wasn't who she thought she was. In fact, it might even have been worse for her since she knew and loved her parents. “I suppose things should be easier for me than for you. I never knew my parents. I didn't have a loving family.”

“I don't know about that. I mean, finding out the life you knew wasn't the one you were supposed to live is freaky no matter what kind of life you've had. Plus, I know for a fact that it's not so easy to go from a terrible home life to a good one. I used to work at social services I know of a bunch of kids who have been uprooted from homes for their own good and placed in a better one. Most of the time, it's not an easy adjustment,” Paige explained.

“I...I never knew my parents. They died when I was eighteen months old. I've lived with my aunt and uncle every since. Well, I thought they were my aunt and uncle anyway. They told me my father was a drunk that got him and my mother killed. They've said many times that I should've died with them,” Harry said. He wasn't sure why he was opening up to a woman he'd only seen twice before this. Perhaps because she knew at least a little bit of what he was going through.

It took everything Paige had to keep a straight face and not go off on an angry rant. She hated child abusers. She'd seen a lot when she worked for social services and she found them to be by far the worst kind of human life on the planet. It took a real coward to bully a child, whether it be physically or verbally.

“I found out when I was eleven that none of that was true. My parents were killed by a wizard, and I was a wizard too. From then on, I went to school to learn Magic. I loved it, but it wasn't all so wonderful. The wizard that killed my parents, or who I thought were my parents, has tried to kill me nearly every year,” Harry explained.

“So your life has been filled with nothing but shock and drama practically your whole life,” Paige stated. No wonder the kid was having such a hard time with this. Any kid would have a hard time dealing with a new family he didn't know about, but her nephew had had to adjust to trauma after trauma and surprise after surprise. He'd probably reached his limit.

Harry nodded. He hadn't even gotten into the prophecy or Sirius dying. That all didn't help with this either. He'd just reached the point in his life where he wasn't sure he could take anything else.

“I know all this is really hard, but I just want you to know you have a family that truly loves you. Phoebe would do anything for you, as would Cole,” Paige said. As much as she hated Cole, she knew her former brother-in-law loved his son. She'd seen the look in his eyes when they'd brought Harry home unconscious and bloody. “The rest of us do to. You have a bunch of cousins who can't wait to meet you. I know your sisters can't wait either.”

“How many kids are there in this family?” Harry wondered. 

“You'd make ten,” Paige said.

“Bloody hell! It reminds me of my friend Ron. He has six siblings,” Harry said. 

“Well, all the kids are like siblings. They see each other almost every day,” Paige said. 

“Um, would you mind if I had some time to myself. I just want to think for a it,” Harry said politely.

“Sure. I'm gonna go raid Piper's fridge,” Paige said before getting up and heading for the kitchen. 

 

Xxxxxxxxxxx

 

That night, Harry found himself being led through a fairly large hat would now be his home by Cole and Phoebe. It was very nice looking. It was a bit larger than the Dursleys' house and had expensive looking furniture and appliances. He was quickly ushered upstairs and into a bedroom that would be his.

Harry looked around astonished. There was a large, comfortable looking bed in the middle of the room. Beside it, there was a night stand with a table lamp on top of it. Across from it, there was a large dresser for his clothes with a mirror attached. On the wall to the left of the bed was a desk and chair designed for reading and school work and on the right of the bed was a large closet. 

Harry was shocked. Some of the things, he'd picked out when he went shopping with Phoebe, like the dresser and end table, but other things he hadn't. He'd seen the bed at the store, but thought it would be two much, so he picked a much smaller one. He didn't pick out the desk either, never even thinking of getting one. When he needed to do work, he was sure he could find a table around elsewhere. There was no reason to purchase something that must be so expensive. 

Cole stepped behind his son and put a hand on his shoulder. “What do you think?”

“Y...You didn't have to. It's too much,” Harry said, still in awe. The room was twice the size of the one he had at the Dursleys and the furniture was nicer than he could've ever imagined. 

“No, it's not. You deserve to have a nice room. We want that for you,” Cole said.

“But it must be so expensive,” Harry said.

“You don't need to worry about money. That's our job. And it's actually not that big a deal. I have a good job and your father was a lawyer. We make plenty of money to provide a nice room for you,” Phoebe assured him. 

Harry went over and touched the bed post. 'Thank you. No one's gotten me anything like this before.”

“That's our job, to make sure you have what you need, and sometimes what you want too,” Phoebe said.

“You want us to give you some time to settle in?” Cole asked.

Harry nodded.

“We'll be downstairs,” Cole said before he and Phoebe walked out of the room. 

“Did you see his face. My God, that was both awesome and depressing at the same time,” Phoebe said as they walked downstairs. She was glad her son was happy about his new room, but not so glad that he seemed so astonished that they, or anyone, would do something so nice for him. The look on his face was like they'd bought him a small mansion.

“Yeah, he shouldn't be so shocked to get nice things, and he certainly shouldn't worry about money,” Cole said, stopping and turning to her as they reached the living room.

“I swear, Cole, I could kill those people just at the thought of what they did to our boy,” Phoebe said.

“If I ever see them again, I will kill them,” Cole said firmly.

“I might just help you,” Phoebe said. She'd never actually hated someone so much that she thought about going out of their way to kill them, but then again, no human had ever harmed her children before. These people had gone out of their way to hurt her son and she wanted them to pay. 

“I'm gonna order dinner soon. It's getting close to that time. Do you want to stay?” Cole asked. A part of him hoped she'd say no. The two of them had been quite cordial since they brought Harry home, aside from the scene when he said he wanted Harry to live with him, but he wasn't sure he wanted to tempt fate. And as much as he hated to admit, even to himself, being around Phoebe was hard for him. A large part of him hated her, but another part of him still loved her too.

“No, I have to go home for dinner. I promised the girls. If you don't mind though, I'll be by in the morning around breakfast time,” Phoebe said.

“That's fine,” Cole said.

“Okay, I'm gonna go back up and say goodbye to him,” Phoebe said before heading back up the stairs.


End file.
